TREE RELIEF

Folklorist Joseph Campbell once said that God is the experience of looking at a tree and saying, 'ah!' \nIf that declaration involves some semblance of truth, the City of Bloomington offers residents and guests the opportunity to communicate with Mother Nature along every street within town.\nBloomington received the label "Tree City USA" from the National Arbor Day Foundation in 1984, the first Hoosier city recognized as such throughout Indiana. Nashville and Indianapolis penned their names to the short list four years later, and more than 50 other Hoosier cities from South Bend to Evansville were crowned a tree city since that time.\n"Being named a 'Tree City USA' city is important for Bloomington from the standpoint that it kind of separates the men from the boys, so to speak, in terms of quality tree programs," said Lee Huff, urban forester for the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. "Bloomington utilizes the recognition in terms of eligibility for certain state grant money. We use those funds for everything -- from the planting of trees to educational grants to the training of employees to public education efforts."\nHuff said a city must abide by four requirements to receive the designation "Tree City USA:" legislate a citywide "tree ordinance," establish a "tree board/commission," appropriate $2 per resident for tree care and maintenance and host an Arbor Day program. Each tree city must renew their title each year, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources oversees the tree city program for the state.\nMore than 93 million Americans -- about one out of three -- live in a "Tree City USA" community that supports forestry programs for their residents, according to the Arbor Day foundation.\nHuff, a town resident since 1983, said most local Hoosiers, a lot of local businesses and some city governmental bodies have always supported a citywide Bloomington urban forest engulfing the picturesque IU campus. \n"The city has always been a tree-loving town. Look along the city streets. Look in peoples yards and on private property. People plant a lot of trees in this town," he said. "There are about 18,000 city street trees -- we remove 120 to 150 trees and we replant between 300-600 trees a year."\nTREE LOVE\nBloomington's manicured urban forest is more than one century in the making, although much of Southern Indiana was smothered by a tree canopy as far as the eye could see before significant westward American expansion. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, about 20 percent of Indiana was forested at the conclusion of the 21st century -- 4.5 million forest acres out of 23 million acres of Hoosier heartland. \n"The quintessential tree planted during the turn of the 20th Century across the country was the American elm. It was a highly popular street tree but a monoculture species," Huff said. "Dutch elm disease pretty much wiped out all of Bloomington's city trees during the 1950s and 1960s. We still don't have a large percentage of street oaks, maples or ash trees because insect or disease can wipe them out completely."\nMore than 85 different types of trees thrive in the Hoosier heartland today, according to the Forest Service Monroe County, in particular, is home to an abundant population of sugar and red maples, white and black oaks, yellow poplars and sassafras trees.\n"If you fly over Southern Indiana and look out the window you will see that trees are the dominant form of life. Trees help provide the Earth's oxygen in the air we breath and the water we drink … Students should ask themselves, 'would I even be here if it wasn't for the trees?" said IU biologist Keith Clay, who is also director of the IU Nature Preserve. \n"Trees are aesthetically pleasing to humans, they provide food and shelter, their roots bind the soil against erosion and their leaves provide shade on hot days … A lot of the history, tradition and ambiance of IU is due to the fact that with a 10 minute bike or car ride you can be out in nature at Lake Griffey, the Hoosier National Forest, Yellowwood State Forest -- a lot of different places."\nTREE CITY USA\nFew areas of Indiana forestland claim trees more than one century old, despite the 100- to 150-year lifespan of most Indiana hardwood trees like black oaks and chestnut oak trees. According to the Forest Service, pine trees were planted throughout the heartland from the 1930s to the 1960s in an effort to stabilize soil depleted by poor farming practices.\nBloomington resident Don Adamson, four-decade owner of Bloomington Valley Nursery, said the city's forest canopy could benefit from the addition of more nonnative trees because modern landscaping trends speak to increased property value and cultural aesthetic instead of practical necessities like timber or shade.\n"Trees make a lot of difference to the people in Bloomington. I like shade myself," he said. "I like to use a variety of trees to get different colors: white, pink and red flowers in the spring, bright red or purple leaves during the summer, yellow to gold to orange/red leaves during the fall … More than atmosphere is creating different views that are attractive -- the view from outside looking at a person's house and the view of being inside and looking out."\nBesides removing carbon dioxide from the air, producing oxygen and providing food or shelter for various woodland creatures, trees around the home can increase property values up to an estimated 15 to 20 percent. According to the NADF, street trees help shade city concrete and shade trees planted next to a building can reduce cooling costs between 15 and 35 percent. \nBloomington Urban Forester Lee Huff said he selects trees based on two primary factors because "one tree doesn't fit every need." He said it wouldn't be fair for the city to plant a tree near a power line, and he always keeps an eye open for particular tree species that are classified as "survivors" like certain maples, ash and oak trees.\nHuff said about 20 city trees are destroyed, damaged or maimed each year, with strewn limbs found along the neighborhood paths leading from many Bloomington bars and taverns.\n"We do some fertilization and tree maintenance in city parks and downtown areas, but a lack of resources to get into the local neighborhoods to fertilize, trim and prune is Bloomington's weakest (Tree City USA) link," he said. "We have plans for the most diverse urban forest ever undertaken. You can see a number of different species but we are not done with it yet. The city's canopy coverage footprint is at 52 percent. We are trying to get about 60 percent of the city covered by trees -- the biggest threat to an urban forest is man"