In January of 2020, the City of Crawfordsville learned a great deal more about one of its most important assets, our urban forest. The term “urban forest” refers to the trees in a city that are on public land and under city supervision, so in Crawfordsville our forest includes Milligan Park, the General Lew Wallace Study, Lane Place, and many other leafy spots throughout the city. Thanks to the report, conducted by professional arborists with The Davey Tree Project, citizens and city officials alike learned that at the time the study was completed at the end of 2019, we had 4116 trees that provide total yearly economic benefits of more the $573,280. According to the online database, these benefits include nearly 6.7 million gallons of saved water (that stay out of storm drains and sewers) and close to 1.2 million pounds of sequestered carbon dioxide. Our tree assets have increased since then.
At December’s Virtual Lunch with the League, guest speaker, Sue Lucas, helped the public understand the value of our tree canopy, something we often take for granted. Sue is program manager of Crawfordsville Main Street that administers the urban forestry project. (You may view this Virtual Lunch with the League program and others on the LWVMC YouTube channel, website, and Facebook page.)
In addition to providing a complete inventory, the 2020 urban forest report set up a database. This resource provides the city and residents invaluable data for maintaining our tree population, including identifying trees that should immediately come down.
Imagine the scene: it’s a windy, stormy day and a tree blows down, perhaps damaging cars, blocking a street, smashing a roof, or worse. Emergency crews must respond to the trauma at great expense, under dangerous working conditions.
Tree inventory mapping sets up a very different scenario: it’s a warm, calm day and city, county, or CEL&P crews come and remove or trim a dangerous tree under the safest working conditions possible.
The database that guides city planners and workers can also be seen by the public. (Go to the City website and look under the Street and Sanitation Department to find the City Tree Survey.) So, rather than “a fat report sitting on a shelf,” we have a nimble tool that can readily be learned from, updated, and maintained going forward.
The history of trees in our city matches that of most other Midwest towns. Crawfordsville was established by clearing forestland in the early 19th century. About 1870, brick and mortar began to replace wood as the main building material. As hard- scaping became more common, trees became less common. In the early 20th century, trees began to be planted in boulevards and along streets all over the nation. The tree of choice was the elm. By mid-century, when elms were being decimated by disease, urban tree people learned, in Lucas’s words, “a great lesson for all of us about monocultures.” Hundreds of thousands of trees died every year. Over time 40 million elms were lost.
A second lesson about urban forestry was learned later in the 20th century when Callery pears were planted in urban spaces. These bushy trees bloom prettily in the spring and have striking fall color. They hold on to their leaves late. They seemed ideal. However, not only is there the monoculture problem with these “Bradford Pears” but this non-native species attracts bird flocks which then spread the tree seeds into our native forests where they tend to overrun native species. Purdue Extension encourages us to remove all Callery pear species.
Today, thanks to lessons learned, urban foresters create native-tree diversity within cities. The healthy results are visible all around us. When Crawfordsville received the state Stellar Designation in 2015, folks with an active interest in preserving and caring for trees knew the time was right. At that point, Lucas says, “Crawfordville’s urban forest ‘became a thing’.” Local young people were key initiators. Brandy Allen, city planner, brought youth into the project as part of the “My Community, My Vision” initiative. The students surveyed their peers and researched best practices. At the top of the high schoolers’ wish list was the desire “to improve and enhance main thoroughfares to reduce air and noise pollution.” They specifically suggested trees be planted widely and researched the best native species. Soon this became a community-wide effort with a dozen or more partners.
This brings us to where we are today. As the earlier numbers from January vividly illustrate, trees, in addition to their beauty, are an investment in economic development. And, unlike most assets, they appreciate with age: they will be worth much more in 10 years than they are now. The “right trees in the right places” improve physical and mental wellness. As Lucas noted, “Trees have a way of naturally calming traffic. They signal that there are people and animals near, that you are in a neighborhood.”
Since 2017, over 90 news trees have been planted. If you would like to do some hands on work with the Crawfordsville Urban Forest, contact Main Street or visit the Urban Forest kiosk on 4th floor Fusion to explore more resources. You can also donate to the Longview Tree and Greenspace Pathway Fund at the Montgomery County Community Foundation. Just a couple of weeks ago, a group of Wabash students headed out to the Dog Park, first learning how to plant trees properly and then grabbing their shovels to dig. Everyone can be part of building our urban forest.
The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase public understanding of major policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. All men and women are invited to join the LWV where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement. For information about the League, visit the website www.lwvmontco.org or voice mail 765-361-2136.
