The Beauty of Urban Forests

Over the past few days I have been conducting an urban forest inventory of a small town in Utah. I spent time in parks, cemeteries and in that awkward space between the road and the sidewalk. I took down information on big trees, small trees, healthy looking trees and trees that were not much more than bare sticks poking out of the ground. At last count, the inventory contained over one thousand trees. I promise you I have done more thinking about trees in the last eight days than most people do in a year.


The inventory provided a peek into not only the lives of the trees but also the people who live there. I have seen a family get a new puppy, watched as kids climbed the trees I was counting and held passionate
conversations with the citizens in the town about the past, present and future of their trees. “That tree was planted when I was just a boy,” a man said staring at a tree over thirty foot high. Another talked about the trees that used to be here. The memory of the trees remained alive in the man even as new trees had been planted to provide shade for some future generation. A crutch, and in another a paint roller, rested ten feet up a tree. The story of how they got there is one I will never know.

The trees I inventoried told stories simply by where they were located and the condition they were in when I added them to the list. A row of Norway Spruce with branches hanging like a well worn suit added to the somber nature of conducting a tree inventory in a cemetery. They spoke to the seriousness of the place. Planted not long after the settlement of the town, they showed the commitment of the town’s people to see the cemetery last well into the future.

Honeylocusts line the streets and make common appearances in the parks. I have always considered them to be a fun if somewhat bland tree. Their leaves are not quite serious about shade yet not as wispy as a willow. Cottonwoods, forever young, grow up fast, loud and full of life. The many fruit trees in the town teach to all who pay attention just which side gets the most sun. The town is also full of new trees still needing a stake to help them stand in the wind. Their future is unwritten and full of hope with just a handful of leaves.

I planned on writing this article about all the practical things that trees bring, how they can up property values, lower energy costs and improve water quality. But, I have to think that we get more than that out of urban trees. As I entered tree after tree day after day a certain beauty becomes clear in the data. Each dot on my map represented dozens of years of time, care and maintenance. The species chosen, the care given or withheld and the age distribution created a record of choices.

People plant trees in places they value. The elms and cottonwoods that are the shade trees of today were the seedlings of years past. That investment in the future continues with every tree planted and maintained. A city that manages their tree population is one that plans on sticking around awhile and maybe enjoying what experiences may come from having a tree or two.