WHO SHALL CARE FOR STREET-TREES 241 



PRINCIPLES UNDERLYING SHADE-TREE LEGISLATION 



When a department for the planting and care of street- 

 trees is established in a city, there frequently arises misun- 

 derstandings with the property-owners regarding the rela- 

 tion which the shade-tree has to the street. The placing 

 of shade-trees under municipal control is of comparatively 

 recent introduction, and therefore, although the citizen is 

 accustomed to regulations affecting the pavements and the 

 sidewalks, he still considers the shade-tree as something 

 affecting only his own house and not as something con- 

 tributing to the value of the entire street. 



For example, a man is used to paying assessments for 

 the paving of the roadway, for the curbing and the laying of 

 the sidewalk, and still he does not absolutely own the pave- 

 ment. He cannot open up the street without good reason, 

 and unless he has permission from the city authorities to do 

 so. He cannot take up the macadam pavement and replace 

 it with asphalt if it so pleases him. It is an accepted fact 

 that as regards the paving of the highway there must be a 

 uniformity of plan that will be productive of the best results 

 for the benefit of every resident of the street. 



The relation of the shade-tree to the highway is the same 

 as that of any other road improvement. The tree is some- 

 thing which benefits not only the abutting property-owner 

 but the entire street, and it is upon this idea that all legisla- 

 tion regarding the planting and care of shade-trees is based. 

 A man may plant a shade-tree along the street-line, but he 

 does not own it in the sense that he owns the trees within 

 the property-line. Neither he nor anybody else has the 

 right to mutilate or cut down the street-tree, for the whole 

 street would incur a loss by such action. 



