"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree ..." Most of us recognize the beginning phrase from "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer.
We remember that opening line, but Mr. Kilmer goes on in his beautiful poem to reflect the glory and worth of what we here in Arkansas think of as simple trees. We mostly ignore the Arkansas forests, but where would we be without them? Think west Texas.
We lived in Texas for 10 years, and in the Kingsville-Corpus Christi area there are plenty of mesquite (which might be classified as a tree, but to an Arkansas boy it's a bush) and a few scraggly palm trees along the bayfront in Corpus Christi.
A year before we moved back to Arkansas we drove home along U.S. 82 to El Dorado for Thanksgiving. As we approached town, we pulled over on a dim road where large oaks towered, their branches touching. The clear, crisp air and gorgeous leaves planted a seed in us that ultimately drew us back home.
We're having one of those knockout falls where the hickory, oaks, and maples are absolutely breathtaking. Back in the early 1980s I started working with the city of El Dorado and the Arkansas Forestry Commission to plant downtown trees. Our mayor at the time was Mike Dumas, and he agreed to cut three-foot squares in the downtown sidewalks for the planting.
I had funds from a parking lot in a defunct downtown improvement district to use for landscaping on public property. So I partnered with the Arkansas Forestry Commission, which at that time had a 50-50 matching fund. Over 20 years, 1,000 trees were planted along our downtown streets.
This year, as the leaves turned, the Bradford pear, sweet gum, cypress, maple, American elm, and oak trees have never looked better. I know the Bradford trees have picked up some negative comments because, if they aren't pruned properly, they will split. However, we still have dozens planted from the 1980s that have been pruned properly and are gorgeous.
If I had to pick the most important part of downtown El Dorado's renovation, it would be the trees, and we're still planting them. With 1,000-plus trees, there will be natural attrition, and that means each year we need to replant 15 to 20 trees.
El Dorado's downtown now has the Murphy Arts District, which has added hundreds of trees to the area a block off the square. As those trees mature, MAD will look even more spectacular.
Downtown trees attract visitors, but they also soften the city center hot spots that infrared aerial photos note. Downtown concrete and asphalt soaks up the summer sun, and trees not only give an overall cooling to the downtown but can reduce the summer electrical bills of adjacent stores by 25 percent.
Our motto, The Natural State, should reflect nature in everything we do. It rings hollow if we view blank parking lots without even a blade of grass. You can plant trees in parking lots and not lose a single parking place, and get a bonus. Several studies have shown a landscaped strip center parking lot will attract more shoppers and have more sales than a strip center without landscaping, with as much as a 25 percent increase in sales from the landscaped parking lot offering the same merchandise.
Developers should be planting trees by the thousands. However, old habits are hard to break, and when someone who views a bare lot that has just been cleared of every living thing to put yet another shopping center remarks, "Well, that's sure an improvement," you know we have a long way to go before we really become The Natural State.
However, we can learn as we watch other towns and cities wholeheartedly planting trees. And a most unlikely city is showing us how to do it: Chicago.
We travel to Chicago every year or two, and the result of its Tree Planting Partnership Program is evident. Fifteen years ago downtown Chicago had a smattering of trees, but today its downtown is a lush forest. The program is so successful that the city started a citywide free tree-planting service: If you would like a tree planted in your yard, call the city and it will, at no cost to you, come plant a tree. Thousands more trees have been planted.
Every town in Arkansas needs a similar plan, and although a lot of downtown street trees are planted each year, we are woefully under-planted. Little Rock has a great organization called Tree Streets, which has planted 1,579 trees over 183 city blocks. It's a great example for other towns in the state to emulate.
Of course, most of us don't live in a downtown environment and we don't plant trees in the sidewalks. However, the need for residential trees in single-family housing is certainly something we should encourage. According to published reports, home ownership is usually the highest asset value of a family, so why not enhance that value? A significant yard tree can add thousands of dollars to the appraised value of a house, and according to the IRS, a casualty loss of such a tree is a significant tax deduction.
The idea that someone would pay several thousand dollars to cut a major tree from their front yard is a step from reality. Why would you pay a tree service and watch as it cuts the tree and you see your house value drop?
In other sections of the country where four-lane roads serve the heaviest traffic areas in the city, I see street trees between the lanes of traffic. However, Arkansas cities usually opt for an endless turn lane along those busy streets. with no sidewalk plantings. How difficult would it be for the city to plant a few thousand crape myrtles along those streets?
Evidently we're not there yet. Maybe we're waiting for our grandchildren to plant them.
Email Richard Mason at richard@gibraltarenergy.com.
Editorial on 12/09/2018