In the last three years, planners and politicians have gotten serious about what they call the green infrastructure of major cities. They have suddenly realized that trees are more than aesthetic touches; they are vital components of a healthy and livable urban environment. Both New York and Los Angeles have launched efforts to plant a million trees each, and have recruited taskforces of community groups, businesses and volunteers to get the job done.

New York’s initiative seems to be particularly thorough. PlanNYC is a broad program aimed at improving the city’s sustainability by addressing issues including storm water management, air quality and lessening urban heat island effects.

Planners have identified neighborhoods with fewer trees than they ought to have (and higher rates of juvenile asthma) and are rushing to plant thousands of new trees “at all available locations.” They also intend to reforest 2000 acres of parkland and create 800 new “greenstreets.”

NYC has even set up an apprentice program aimed at giving disadvantaged youth “green collar jobs” related to tree planting and care.

Hartney Greymont supports the spirit behind these efforts wholeheartedly. However, as a firm that has practiced urban forestry since 1938, we are only guardedly optimistic about the long-term prospects of programs such as MillionTreesNYC. If experience is any indicator, most of the trees planted will be dead within seven years, killed by a variety of factors but mainly an excess of enthusiasm.

What’s needed is more patience and a lot of expertise. Just as no city would recruit volunteers to rebuild its grey infrastructure of roads, tunnels and bridges, relying on untrained people to plant and care for trees guarantees minimal success.

As caretakers of the Park at Post Office Square in downtown Boston, we run what is essentially a laboratory on urban forest management. We have had to find solutions to problems ranging from soil compaction and root health to variable sunlight and heavy concentrations of exhaust fumes.

If we were advising New York City, we would recommend the following:

• Narrow the scope of the initiative to allow greater concentrations of arboricultural know-how at the front end. Identifying viable locations and planting the most appropriate species correctly is crucial.
• Before you bring in thousands of recruits, train the trainers. Develop an organization in which knowledge can trickle down to the community groups and private citizens who will monitor and tend the trees through the years.
• Shift the focus from the number of trees planted to the number of trees thriving. Cities develop over generations, so do urban forests.

Properly cared for, a city’s green infrastructure can reduce pollution, cut energy costs, supply shade and provide the intangible benefits that all human beings need.

But getting there isn’t easy and it’s never been fast.

James Cameron, director of blockbusters Titanic and Avatar, has undertaken another gargantuan project:  planting one million trees this year.

Partnering with the Earth Day Network and organizations in 15 countries, Cameron has created the Avatar Home Tree Initiative.  Its objective is to plant trees that will restore deforested regions of the planet, improve air quality and urban animal habitats.

At least half a million fruit trees will be planted in Haiti alone to help restore the ravaged ecosystem and create economic benefits for the country’s farmers.

As arborists, we think this a terrific idea.  The Initiative’s commitment to planting only trees native to a given region is wise and will go a long way toward ensuring the future success of the project.  We’ve seen too many well-intentioned programs go awry through lack of scientific knowledge.

For example, the creation of monocultures by the massive planting of only one kind of tree can set the stage for a catastrophic die-off if the wrong invasive pest happens to come along.

A particularly creative aspect of the Initiative’s plan is to involve individuals worldwide.  This part of the program seems to be funded by the sale of Avatar DVDs.  Fans who choose to participate, can adopt one of the million trees.  In return, they get a virtual “home tree” visible to them via the Initiative’s website.  As of this writing, 237,330 trees have been adopted.

Cameron’s project seems to be dovetailing with similar efforts in New York and Los Angeles, both of which have undertaken million-tree programs.

In Part II of this post, we’ll take a look at these efforts and discuss what could be done to improve their chances of success.

At HG, the profession of arborist is an academic discipline–with elements of surgery, trapeze work and tree whisperer thrown in.

HG arborists are university-trained and their education is on-going. In fact, we consider our people’s post-grad education so important that we pay for it.

So, what kinds of things does an arborist study? At the Stockbridge School of the University of Massachusetts, where many HG arborists were trained, the curriculum ranges from Community Forestry and Sustainable Agriculture to Pruning Fruit Crops and Landscape Drafting.

What makes the study of arboriculture such a difficult endeavor is the complexity of the ecosystem. Everything connects to everything else: the tree, the tree beside it, the ground it’s rooted in, the marsh a quarter of a mile away, the last two weeks of relentless rain, the Asian long-horned beetle that just arrived…

It’s endless.

And if you think arborists spend their days in the country, you would be wrong. HG arborists are also masters of urban forestry management, one of the most demanding disciplines of all. As caretakers of the Park at Post Office Square in Boston, we have to deal with an entirely different realm of dangers and conditions such as the heavy flow of traffic, air and water pollution and vibration.

Of course, arboriculture isn’t only a science, it’s an art. And to learn many of the practical, craft-related and esoteric aspects of the trade, an arborist should serve a long apprenticeship. Some things you just can’t get from a book, e.g., our secret method for safely lacing up the root ball of a large tree before moving it.

Believe me, it’s enough to keep you studying for a lifetime.

All in all, the politicians, committees and school children who chose our state trees did a surprisingly good job.

From Alabama’s Pinus palustris to Wyoming’s Populus deltoides, they represent not only their individual states, but the qualities of the country itself. Adaptable (Blue Palo Verde), Resilient (Pinon Pine), Unforgettably Impressive (Giant Sequoia).

Here’s a list for you. The next time you see any Hartney Greymont arborists around town, give them a quick quiz.

Alabama – Longleaf Pine
Alaska – Sitka Spruce
Arizona – Blue Palo Verde
Arkansas – Loblolly Pine
California – Coast Redwood and Giant Sequoia
Colorado –Colorado Blue Spruce
Connecticut– White Oak
Delaware – American Holly
District of Columbia – Scarlet Oak
Florida – Cabbage Palmetto
Georgia – Southern Live Oak
Guam–Ipil
Hawaii – Candlenut Tree
Idaho – Western White Pine
Illinois – White Oak
Indiana – Tulip Tree
Iowa –Bur Oak
Kansas – Eastern Cottonwood
Kentucky – Tulip-tree
Louisiana – Bald Cypress
Maine – Eastern White Pine
Maryland – White Oak
Massachusetts – American Elm
Michigan – Eastern White Pine
Minnesota – Red Pine
Mississippi –Southern Magnolia
Missouri – Flowering Dogwood
Montana – Ponderosa Pine
Nebraska – Eastern Cottonwood
Nevada – Single- leaf Pinon Pine and Bristlecone Pine
New Hampshire – American White Birch
New Jersey – Northern Red Oak
New Mexico – Pinon Pine
New York – Sugar Maple
North Carolina – Longleaf Pine
North Dakota – American Elm
North Marianas – Flame Tree
Ohio – Ohio Buckeye
Oklahoma – Eastern Redbud
Oregon – Douglas Fir
Pennsylvania – Eastern Hemlock
Puerto Rico –Silk Cotton Tree
Rhode Island – Red Maple
South Carolina– Sabal Palmetto
South Dakota – Black Hills Spruce
Tennessee – Tulip Tree
Texas – Pecan
Utah – Blue Spruce
Vermont – Sugar Maple
Virginia – Flowering Dogwood
Washington – Western Hemlock
West Virginia – Sugar Maple
Wisconsin – Sugar Maple
Wyoming – Plains Cottonwood

The news that Angelina Jolie gave husband Brad Pitt a rare olive tree for Valentine’s Day has caused a flurry of interest here.

Although the species was not mentioned, the reportedly 200 year-old, $18,500 tree will be planted at the couple’s estate in southern France. We were glad to hear it. Olive trees favor coastal locations, craggy settings, hot weather and calcareous soil.

As arborists, we would ordinarily be concerned about movie stars planting and caring for an older tree. But olive trees are unusually resistant to disease, drought and fire. The root system is also resilient and can regenerate the tree, even if the above-ground structure is lost.

However, Brad could face problems from cycloconium oleaginum, a fungus that can infect olive trees for several seasons in a row; bacteria that cause tumors to grow in the shoots; leaf-feeding caterpillars and the pesky olive fly.

And he might wish he’d gotten a more conventional Valentine’s Day gift when he’s forced to contend with the fruit-damaging black scale bug (which also attracts wasps) and the curculio beetle that will munch the edges of his tree’s leaves in a characteristic saw tooth pattern.

Proper pruning is also very important but, luckily, olive trees are carefully cultivated in Mr. Pitt’s corner of France and he ought to be able to get the professional help he needs.

Naturally, we’re hoping that Angelina’s generous arboreal gift encourages others to give trees on special occasions. There are fine specimens suited to whatever climate you live in and, with appropriate care, a tree is a gift that appears more and more impressive as time passes.

Be sure to check this blog regularly for more news of celebrities and their trees.

According to data compiled by researchers at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Maryland, forests in the eastern U.S. are growing faster than they have in the last 225 years.

Based on SERC’s measurements, more than 90% of the hardwood stands that they monitor have grown two to four times faster than anticipated. That’s an additional two tons of biomass per acre per year.

You don’t have to be an arborist to wonder why this is happening and what it might mean.

Environmental changes are the likeliest reason. Over the last 22 years, the growing season in Maryland has increased by 7.8 days. The mean temperature is up by .3 of a degree. And CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now at least 12% higher.

Surprised? If you’re used to thinking of developments in the ecosystem as unfolding over centuries, these changes are startlingly large. And the reaction of deciduous forests is equally dramatic.

What happens next, however, is unclear. Our ecosystem encompasses countless interdependencies. Forests and the ground they are rooted in contain the majority of the Earth’s carbon. So changes there will impact everything from weather patterns to biodiversity. And those changes will cause other changes, ad infinitum.

Arborists and researchers are making similar observations from the Rockies to Africa. For example, it has been noted recently that tropical rainforests in Africa are holding more carbon than they did 40 years ago. Sounds positive but why is it happening?

In Finland, arborists have observed that a longer growing season is not increasing growth—trees there are genetically set to stop growing at a certain time of year and continue to do so, even though the first frost now occurs later.

Their research has raised questions regarding whether humans should intervene to help the forests adapt before too much potential growth is lost, perhaps by introducing southern species or clearing out some older trees to let newer, more adaptable trees establish themselves.

It’s an interesting time to be nuts about trees.

Sources: Science Daily, Smithsonian Institution and University of Helsinki

Last week in Seattle, someone slipped onto the grounds of the Washington Park Arboretum one night, cut down what probably looked like a suitable Christmas tree, and absconded with it.

We’ll leave the ethical aspects of stealing one’s Christmas tree for other blogs.

Our interest in this story lies in the particular tree stolen, a seven-foot Keteleeria evelynian. Native to Yunnan Province, it is a threatened species and so rare that even most arborists have never seen one. The Washington Park botanists had raised it from a seedling given to them by a sister institution in China.

Now, presumably, it’s in somebody’s living room, draped with tinsel. In two weeks, it will be lying at the curb, bound for the wood chipper.

At one level, this is just another unrecognized treasure story. The Picasso on the junk pile. The first-edition Hemingways propping up a bed. But it could also be that the stump in the Washington Park Arboretum is small enough to teach us a lesson about the environment that much larger warning signs can’t.

We read recently that the current rate of global species extinction is outstripping what ecologists consider normal by a factor of 100.

The Keteleeria evelynian is part of the die-off.

Maybe the best way to do more about the environment is to know more. Know the species of the trees and plantings in your own yard. Learn to recognize a bird call or two.

Then teach somebody what you know.

One bit of good news: The Washington Park Arboretum had two Keteleeria evelynians. They are reportedly considering dousing the survivor and their other rarest specimens with animal urine as a deterrent.

We’re all for that.

After being stopped by a killing frost two years ago, winter moths are on the flutter again—in numbers estimated in the trillions.

If you saw moths on your property a few weeks ago, be sure to schedule a treatment for your trees in 2010. Next spring, the larval offspring of those moths will begin eating with voracious appetite, turning the canopies of trees throughout Eastern Massachusetts into lacy wrecks.

Oak and maple leaves are two of their favorite meals, but winter moths also have a taste for blueberries and apples, and have devastated entire crops.

The good news is that there are organic countermeasures that homeowners can take. And one year of infestation won’t be fatal.

That said, any exposure to winter moth larvae will tax your trees. In areas where winter moths are well established, such as the Pacific Northwest, homeowners have seen valuable fruit and ornamental trees succumb. Biologists predict that, come March, many Massachusetts trees will be suffering.

If you have any questions, please call and speak to one of our certified arborists. We’ll be glad to tell you more about this harmless looking menace and discuss treatment options.

The one I’m thinking about now has already killed tens of millions of ash trees in a zone reaching from Michigan and Ontario to New York and Maryland.  The Emerald Ash Borer ultimately threatens all seven billion ash trees in North America.

Larvae of the EAB destroy the tree’s water and nutrient carrying tissues, causing a rapid die-back in the canopy.  30-50% of the tree’s branches can die in the first year.  Smaller trees are usually dead within one to two years, larger trees within three to four.

The best guess is that the EAB arrived here from eastern Russia and China 12 years ago, probably embedded in cargo pallets.  Since then, it has spread through the movement of infested logs, firewood, etc.  Adult EABs can also fly up to half a mile, compounding the problem.

On the plus side, the reaction of government agencies, universities, arboreta and private citizens has been vigorous and sustained.  Vigilance is essential.  If there’s an ash on your property, be alert to signs of infestation and report any to a certified arborist.

A couple of statistics about another infestation to put the danger in perspective:  between 1930 and 1970, America lost about 77 million trees to Dutch elm disease.   In Britain and Northern Europe, there are almost no mature elms left.