“I like trees,” Midwestern author Willa Cather once wrote, “because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do.”
Cather, who died in 1947, never did see the worst of “the way they have to live.” The post-war years have been murder on urban trees, what with the spread of Dutch Elm disease, the use of highly acidic roadway de-icers and, of course, the tyranny of exhaust-belching automobiles. Wrong-headed public safety officials once even ordered the removal of trees and shrubs that might hide muggers in places like Grant Park.
Now we know better. Trees clean the air of urban grit, provide cooling shade and wildlife habitat, and less obviously, enhance our sense of place. There is even some new academic research crediting trees with damping street crime.
One should forgive Mayor Richard Daley, therefore, if he sometimes seems nutty about trees. This spring and summer the city and the Chicago Park District have committed to planting 20,000 trees–a veritable forest–along Chicago’s streets and boulevards and in her parks and schoolyards. That’s more trees than were planted here during the previous three years combined. The Park District alone will plant 7,000, the previous annual record being 2,500.
Some 47 species will be used, from the beloved White Oak and Purple Ash to special-purpose varieties like the Kentucky Coffee Tree, which laughs at road salt.
Cynics may think this $10 million arboreal investment is frivolous, or even foolhardy, given the devastation an extended Chicago drought can wreak on saplings. But Daley isn’t taking chances. These babies are warranted for the first year, during which time contractors are responsible for watering.
Beyond that, we’re all responsible. Trees don’t much care for the dumping of hot charcoals on their roots, or being sideswiped by lawn mowers, or having children climb branches not ready to take the weight. Remember, too, that parkway trees need watering along with the garden shrubs, and that dogs should be curbed at fire hydrants, telephone poles or other inanimate objects.
With a little care, Cather’s stoic trees can help city dwellers become downright comfortable with “the way they have to live.”
