The aromatic smell of sassafras was described by early European settlers arriving in North America. According to one legend, Christopher Columbus found North America because he could smell the scent of sassafras Sassafras albidum was a well-used plant by Native Americans in what is now the southeastern United States prior to the European colonization. The Choctaw word for sassafras is “Kvfi.” It was known as “Winauk” in Delaware and Virginia and is called “Pauane” by the Timuca. Some Native American tribes used the leaves of sassafras to treat wounds by rubbing the leaves directly into a wound, and used different parts of the plant for many medicinal purposes such as treating acne, urinary disorders, and sicknesses that increased body temperature, such as high fevers. They also used the bark as a dye, and as a flavoring.–Wikipedia
Garrett Street in Charlottesville, between Ridge Street and Avon, has excellent “green infrastructure”. It is a canopy street. Trees provide shade and shelter, and lower temperatures in the summer. In 2006 the Charlottesville City Council adopted a 2025 Vision. Item five of the eight point vision was “A Green City” The City adopted a plan in 2016 to guide the morphology of its streets. Citizens were involved in the development of the plan. People like canopy trees. Shade is a necessity in a southern city if you intend to walk in the summertime. The Garrett Street trees have been celebrated over the years. In the last decade development pressure has focused on this corridor. But still, in the time of COVID-19, a number of the trees remain. (construction workers maintaining distance). This past week, seven Garrett Street corridor Pin Oaks were dispatched. 10-15,000 square feet of shade gone. Over a million leaves, gone. Carbon sequestration gone. Apex Energy is building an eight storey energy efficient structure to the south of the stumps . The landscape plan for Apex’s new corporate headquarters shows these noble oaks being replaced by pagoda dogwoods, a flowering plant, a small deciduous shrub that grows to twenty feet, with a trunk up to six inches in diameter. Token trees. The proposed plantings will not provide the environmental services that these trees brought to our City. This canopy street destruction is deeply discouraging. According to talk on the street, the Apex building is being designed by William McDonough + Partners, two thoughtful companies… Sometimes green is not green.
Fortunately, there are not too many parallels between COVID19 and the American Chestnut blight. But in common there is awareness and awakening. Minimize death, be careful. The awakening part… Have you planted a tree during this life? What are you waiting for? It is a rehabilitative and blessed thing to do. Plant. Now. #growingtowardthelightThe Family of James and Caroline Shelton pose by a large dead American chestnut tree in Tremont Falls, Tennessee, circa 1920. Courtesy of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Library
Greatest forest loss in history
The American chestnut is an historic and beloved part of America’s landscape. Its extinction would be the loss of a symbol of American strength, endurance and resourcefulness. Saving the chestnut and restoring it to its native range at scale could also help give other endangered tree species a new lease on life and directly offset the effects of climate change and deforestation. While no single intervention can completely eradicate chestnut blight, together the science of breeding, biotechnology, and biocontrol (3BUR) offer our best hope for rescuing the American chestnut tree.—The American Chestnut Foundation
“I willingly confess so great a partiality for trees as tempts me to respect a man in exact proportion to his respect for them. He cannot be wholly bad who has a sympathy with what is so innocent and so beautiful. But quite apart from any sentimental consideration, the influence of trees upon climate and rainfall gives to the planting of trees, and to the protection of them where nature has already planted them, a national importance. Our wicked wastefulness and contempt for the teaching of science in this matter will most surely be avenged on our descendants. Nature may not instantly rebuke, but she never forgives the breach of her laws.” March 25, 1888, James Russell Lowell
Charlottesville Parks and Rec resisted the engineering temptation to cut the trees and make the path straight. When you preserve beauty in your City the people benefit.
Tree sale today.10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Location: Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Tufton Farm, 1293 Tufton Farm, C’ville 22902
“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope.”
― Wangari Maathai Trees $5 to $10.
There are people in local government. You ask them to do A, and they go out and do A-Z and do it beyond all expectation. Gensic, Mahon, Poncy, Scala are that kind of people. Wish we had such a crew whose total job focus was the urban forest and Rivanna corridor.
Sorry to lose the Monsoon oak. Couldn’t we build another? Manufacture a trunk, a branch system, put a few hundred thousand leaves on limbs. Develop mechanical systems to allow the leaves to transpire, create shade and a microclimate on the terrace.
When Tilly was 10 weeks old she hung out while I planted 41 tulip trees in tubes.
Two years later all those trees have survived. Some have thrived, others are only slightly larger than when they were planted. Same weather, same soil, same source. What is the variable that accounts for the difference?
Tree tubes are not magic. Maintenance is required.
