> Is the only problem lack
>of trees or attitudes about trees?
Saskatchewan sits in the middle of the Canadian Prairies, and its capital
city is Regina.
Regina boasts that all the trees within its boundaries were planted.
This is meant to be a positive claim, I think: the idea that people have
conquered nature by bringing a forest to a region of the Prairies that had
none.
As a resident of Regina for about ten years in the 80s or so, I have a
couple of observations. (My wife and I had a house at the edge of the city,
overlooking a floodplain that marked the city limits. The floodplain and
some surrounding higher grassland within city limits was designated as a
city park.)
Firstly, numerous tree seedlings grew in my yard from seeds dropped by
trees. As they sprouted in the lawn, I mowed around them, and eventually
stopped mowing altogether and let the lawn die. This was not popular with
the neighbours, but the trees seemed happy enough. There was nothing
spectacular, but we had maple, ash, and I think alder, and poplar from
suckers, too. (I later added coniferous trees available for free from a
Government tree nursery.)
When I graduated to transpanting surplus tree seedlings into the city park
across the street, which was devoid of trees, I was dismayed to find city
crews come along and spray some toxic substance all over them and kill them
off.
After that, I noticed that, in all the park areas where the city had
officially planted its trees, the ground around the trees was carefully
cultivated so as to remove every weed (i.e. every plant not deliberately
palnted), and I noticed that a great many tree seedlings that I saw in the
dpring were gone soon after, thanks to this policy.
So I think the boast of the city of Regina, that every tree within its
boundaries has been deliberately planted, is very true.
Terry J. Klokeid, Ph.D.
Amblewood Organic Farm --Vegetable and herb seeds and seedlings--
126 Amblewood Drive, Fulford Harbour, SaltSpring Island BC V8K 1X2
Voice & fax (250) 653-4099 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
