Program Teaches Residents How to Grow Trees
By Dan Simmons, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
Jul. 17–Susan Hare described her husband, Bob, as “fanatical” about caring for the two red maple trees planted this spring on the boulevard in front of their Loomis Avenue house.
They replaced another red maple Hare transplanted as a seedling 16 years ago from his father’s house that was leveled last summer during road construction.
Hare spread mulch around the new trees this spring, waters them every other night and calls city forester Pat Bonadurer if the leaves start to look sickly. What he doesn’t do: name them, talk to them or hug them.
“My wife would think I’m loonier than she already does,” he said with a laugh.
Hare’s meticulous tending of his trees comes not as an accident but because he attended a tree-care class by Bonadurer this winter. The city has required the class since 1995 for all who apply for new trees on their boulevard, Bonadurer said.
About 100 to 150 people have taken part in the program annually, Bonadurer said, a big reason the city has been able to replace just about every tree lost to disease or old age over the past decade.
Nationally, it’s been a different story, as rapid development and an influx of tree-
eating pests has led to deforestation in many U.S. cities.
Trees look nice and give a feeling of comfort. But they also have been found to have practical benefits in cooling a city — Bonadurer called them “nature’s air conditioners” — as well as preventing floods and reducing global warming.
Bonadurer estimated more than 20,000 boulevard trees now line La Crosse streets. In recent years, he’s focused on diversifying the crop, adding new species such as Kentucky coffees, Turkish filberts and Canadian red cherries to the usual mix of elms, maples and hackberries.
Doing so reduces the risk of a massive die-off due to disease, as what happened in the 1970s and ’80s when dutch elm disease decimated elms in many cities, including La Crosse. Now, city crews plant different species next to each other to create “buffer zones” against a disease spreading, Bonadurer said.
City crews plant the boulevard trees during the spring and prune them every five or six years, Bonadurer said. The rest is up to the landowners.
“If they want a tree, they have to know how to take care of it,” he said. “We essentially orphan it and turn it over to them.”
Julius and Mary Zander were among the first year’s class of adopters in 1995 and adopted again the next year. Four maples — two Norways, two reds — now stand full grown on the boulevards in front of their corner house at 21st Street and Hyde Avenue.
For the first three or four years, Julius tended to them on nearly a daily basis, watering them and calling Bonadurer for advice if they began to droop. Since then, however, they’ve matured and provided shade, a home for birds and a boost to property value, they said, with little tending required.
“Now it’s almost to the point that they can thrive on neglect,” Julius said.
Hare said he looks forward to that day, but knows plenty of care is required to get there. He noted it would be at least a decade before the new trees provide the same shade as the old one.
“I just hope we’ll still be around to see it,” he said.
“If not, someone else will get to enjoy it,” Susan said.
Dan Simmons can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or dsimmons@lacrossetribune.com. .
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Copyright (c) 2007, La Crosse Tribune, Wis.
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