Randall Cutting wrote: "How could a mayoral candidate not propose a major planting program? Urban trees are one of the most important natural resources in any city."
The Mayor and MPRB Commissioner Erwin have been working on trying to ramp up our tree planting strategy. I would call it an environmental crisis. The loss of each mature tree is degrading to ecological health of our city. It is the same crew of Park Board Foresters that must either cut down diseased elms or plant new trees. Even when the City, the Park Board, private donors and Federal Govt. add additional dollars, as they are all doing, we are losing a significant portion of the lungs of our city. All these entities are aware of the crisis but even with more dollars there are significant problems with the lack of additional capacity to plant new boulevard trees. One way of addressing the challenge of planting trees to replace the lost elms would be to organize city residents to plant boulevard trees in front of the houses they rent or own. What I would suggest is a program that describes and identifies ideal locations for trees (especially elm stump holes) describes Gopher State One Call for digging safety, and gives a list of approved boulevard trees and the permit process from the Park Board. Ideally there could be cooperation of local nurseries for bulk purchases and assistance from the Tree Trust who also does great inner city organizing. If I planted a tree in front of my house, (especially if I paid for it), I would water it and take care of it. With little cost to the City or MPRB, I think we could plant between 500 and 1000 trees a year that would be donated by citizens and neighborhood groups. I think people would buy trees to plant in front of their houses and apartments. We have changed perception and attitudes with endeavors like Blooming Boulevards. It would be fairly easy to add tree planting to that work. Without the help of neighborhoods we will not even come close to replacing the number of lost elms with 2'' saplings. We have great talent and energy if we can understand and organize around an issue. For example, in Seward we have some well trained tree planting volunteers that could be put to use planting boulevard trees -if there were a program to do so. It is important to understand the economic and environmental importance of our urban forest. I have planted many trees and would like to plant many more in my neighborhood and in the city. It is a great reward and joy to see seedlings grow into towering magnificent trees. Thanks, Scott Vreeland Seward And congratulations to Randall Cutting for his recent election as Co-chair of the Seward Neighborhood Group REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
