Seeing the trees

A school nearby recently had to remove nearly all its trees because they were old and diseased and a risk to anyone nearby since they were likely to fall or to lose limbs at any times. They were nearly all planted at the same time so they all had to go together. When I saw all the piles of woody debris, I remembered the time I had a chance to plant a  number of trees.

I was the newly-appointed principal of a newly-built school. I was too late to influence the buildings, but I was in time to influence the site. So I planned the preschool play area, a small wetlands, sports and free play areas and so on. 

One of the things I wanted to do was to include a couple of every native plant and tree from the state so students could know more about the flora and teachers could plan relevant walks, scavenger hunts, activities, task sheets etc. Students could research the state, the geology, the soil, the weather - the possibilities were endless.

I had my assistant contact the local university's botany department (it might have been forestry or horticulture, I can't remember) and we met with a very nice your professor who thought this would be a nice project for a graduate student in terms of research, monitoring and follow up.

We (they really) identified 40 something species and we found some nurseries for some of them, and were looking for sources of others. We began planning what would be where. Did we want an avenue of trees. Did we want a copse in the turning-circle in front of the main office? Did we want trees to shade benches where students would sit and reflect on their learning? Did we want a pollinators' corner for bees? 

This was all very exciting and I decided that the student council must be involved as soon as the new semester started. Enter the owner.

Two weeks later, a truck of grown trees arrived, all the same and all exotics, which were quickly planted. Educational plans dashed, and all trees being diseased at the same time and thus requiring removal more likely.

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