STREET TREES 



By J. J. LEVISON, B. A., M. F. 



Forester in Charge of the Trees in the Parks of Brooklyn 



^^^HE park siiperinteudent of today is facing a new problem. Those old 

 I) neglected street trees are now gradually becoming his care and the people 

 are even more particular about them than they are about the parks, 

 because in the street tree the citizen takes a jiroprietary interest. It is his 

 tree; he sees it daily, is directly benelited by it and expects it to be thrifty and 

 sightly. The park superintendent must meet this problem and if he meets it 

 well, it is that much to his ci-edit. What then are the fundamental principles of 

 street tree planting and care and how shall he go about the problem? 



First of all the street trees as well as the park trees should be controlled 

 by the municipality and placed under the jurisdiction of a single head. 

 Municipal control is the only way of securing uniformity in planting — very 

 essential on streets — it is the only way of controlling insect and fungus inva- 

 sions over large areas and of doing anything systematically and at the right 

 time. Co-ordination of effort, that is, combining all city tree work into one 

 bureau is also the only way of insuring the absolute eradication of insect and 

 fungous pests, of securing uniformity and efficiency in methods, material and 

 apparatus and of getting the work done at the least possible cost. All city 

 tree problems both in the parks and on the streets are interdependent and 

 divided effort would mean loss of time, money and trees. 



With the work co-ordinated, place the responsibility of all tree matters on 

 a professional forester, a man trained in the science of forestry and arbori- 

 culture and one of considerable experience in park work. His duties will be 

 to see to all planting, spraying, pruning and cultivating. He will establish a 

 municipal nursery, test the various insecticides and fungicides, install the best 

 apparatus and enforce the city tree ordinances. He will organize the office 

 work, plot the street trees on a map and advise citizens on their tree problems. 

 He will issue permits for tree removal and private tree pruning, study the local 

 tree problems, collect tree statistics and promote public interest through 

 lectures and writing. 



The enactment of a good city tree ordinance is the next step. There are a 

 number of cities that now have such ordinances in force and the new one may 

 be modeled from those. Your tools to work with are then provided and if 

 your trained expert is a good one, you can leave the details of carrying out 

 the work to him. Oversee his work occasionally, give him the benefit of your 

 wider experience and back him when necessary because in the beginning of all 

 such work there frecpiently appear many cases of opposition from citizens who 

 either for selfish motives or otherwise try to force their own views in the matter 

 of handling technical tree problems. 



The attention of the forester will first probably be directed to the care 

 of the existing trees rather than to the addition of new ones. 



Spraying for leaf-eating insects may be his first work. Street trees growing 

 under less favorable conditions than park trees are naturally weaker and 



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