806 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



PARKWOOD AVENUE, BALTIMORE. 



THIS STREET WAS PARKED AND PLANTED BY THE DIVISION OF FORESTRY AS A PART OF IMPROVED PAVING WORK, THE 

 PLANTING OF NORWAYS TAKING THE PLACE OF UNDESIRABLE POPLARS. 



of the sewers or streets required such 

 an organization. The Division of 

 Forestry was therefore established as a 

 Division of the City Engineer's Depart- 

 ment. Supported by a broad compre- 

 hensive tree law, the city's tree problem 

 is now under charge of an organized 

 Division which has absolute control over 

 all shade trees growing on public foot- 

 ways. The present organization of the 

 Division consists of a Forester, Assistant 

 Forester, Inspector of parking work, 

 Clerk, three (3) gangs of laborers with 

 a foreman over each. The present 

 appropriation for tree work in the city 

 is $7,900, an amount entirely inadequate 

 for the proper handling of the tree 

 problem. 



The Forestry Division is called upon 

 to do a large amount of parking work 

 for the Annex Improvement Commis- 

 sion as a part of improved paving work, 

 and it is only because of this work that 

 the above personnel can be maintained. 



When active work began in March, 

 1913, an inventory of conditions re- 

 vealed that Baltimore was not a tree- 



less city by any means, for it was found 

 that 75,000 trees (estimated) were 

 standing on the streets of the city 

 proper and the Annex. These trees for 

 the most part were planted by real estate 

 developers and property owners who 

 were poorly versed in the value of 

 species and the technique of planting. 

 Present conditions indicate that quick- 

 ness of results and not permanency of 

 tree values was sought for. As a con- 

 sequence we find a preponderance of 

 the quick-growing short-lived trees. 

 Common among these are the North 

 Carolina poplar and the Silver Maple. 

 At least 75% of the trees are of undesir- 

 able species, most of them being im- 

 properly planted. The commonest 

 faults in the planting are too close 

 spacing, planting too near the curbing, 

 and failure to protect the trees. This 

 last fault in the planting is directly 

 responsible for the decadent condition 

 of possibly 25% of the mature trees. 

 The growth of the mature trees which 

 are now standing on the city's footways 

 was made possible only by very favor- 



