4, MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 397 



TREES IN WAR 



In time of peace the annual value of the tree crop in the United States, prin- 

 cipally in manufactured forest products, approaches $800,000,000 and in war- 

 time this figure may be more than doubled. Therefore, the itrportance of wood 

 and other tree products is widely recognized. The essential value of shade tree 

 programs durmg wartime, however, has not been universally appreciated. The 

 use of trees and other plants has always been important for the concealment of 

 unsightly areas and for securing privacy about dwellings. Since the battleground 

 of modern war is limitless, including the homes in cities and towns throughout 

 the world, any increased obscurity associated with native tree plantings is of 

 significance as supplementary protection against aerial attack. 



The decentralizing of municipalities or the expansion of communities into 

 subdivisions has been a matter of research involving many considerations, es- 

 pecially in recent years. When the decentralizing of C'ties began in the United 

 States it was not with any thought of making the communities less vulnerable as 

 targets, but rather for the constructive benefits of peaceful pursuits including 

 convenience, health, safety, and general welfare. Fortunately, civic planning, 

 perhaps unwittingly but nevertheless genuinely, anticipated the future and 

 materially contributed to the present-day war effort. Recently, R. P. Brecken- 

 ridge,2 Major, Corps of Engineers, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, published this hearten- 

 ing-descript'on under a photograph: "Aerial view of a well-planted city. Trees 

 screen this area and render it practically immune to aerial attack." A second 

 photograph bore this gloomy prediction: "A city where tree planting has not been 

 considered important. Note the vulnerability and visibility to aerial attack." 

 Major Breckenridge pointed out in particular that trees and natural foliage are 

 obviously of prime importance in any camouflage scheme. 



The development of war housing projects has added heavy duties to some muni- 

 cipal tree. programs, and there is not time for all municipalities to provide addi- 

 tional tree canopies, but all towns and cities can make judicious use of the trees 

 already planted on streets and roadsides. Spraying for the prevention of attacks 

 by destructive pests will aid materially in enabling trees to render important ser- 

 vice and every community should provide for tree protection. The dangers of 

 the policy of "too little and too late" were never more clearly apparent than in 

 the war on plant pests. Let no one be lulled into complacency concerning the 

 imminence of attack by disease fungi and insects. Too often, ground lost to 

 these invaders can never be recaptured. The economic loss sustained by unwar- 

 ranted curtailment of pest control programs finally reaches every individual in 

 the nation. The danger of winning the war only to lose the peace was never more 

 real than in relation to the control of plant diseases and insect pests, and the 

 importance of unbroken continuity in a pest control program cannot be empha- 

 sized too strongly. The ample scientific basis for this statement, although some- 

 what involved, may be visualized as the pattern from which "blitzkrieg" tactics 

 were copied. 



Trees protected from pests are in turn a safeguard to life and property. More- 

 over the sprayers, trucks, hose lines, and storage tanks employed in shade tree 

 protection may serve other use in an emergency. The tree wardens were among 

 the first public officers to make specific study and provisions for a revision of 

 local programs in cooperation with public service agencies. In fact, on November 



2 The Use of Trees in Camouflage. Trees, Sept.— Oct., 1941. pp. 7 and 15. 



