>The most recent copy that I have of "Tree Planting in the US" by the USFS
>notes that the data "does not include tree planting in urban and community
>environments." In another USFS document ("Urban and community forestry
>program accomplishments for FY 1995") Rita Schoeneman says that there are
>more than 69 million acres of urban forests in the United States (no
>definition of urban forests here, but nevermind!) Do we have stats for
>trees planted in these acres, without having to crawl from program to
>program and group to group? (I'll take those micro-statistics too, if you
>have them....)
>
>Chief Jake Swamp of the Tree of Peace Society is trying to plant 1 billion
>trees around the world. Global ReLeaf has recently hit 5 million....
>Everyday, it seems, more organizations are incorporating tree planting in
>some form for some reason. Tree planting is clearly a boom industry in
>many manifestations and guises; again, I'm looking for numbers across
>sectors and time, along with the rationales offered for tree planting. Any
I get somewhat concerned when I see messages on the number of trees various
organizations are planting. A number of years ago the Walnut Council pulled
together the information on the number of black walnuts seedlings produced
by the public nurseries in the eastern United States from 1960's to the mid
1980's. Making assumptions on the normal treee spacing for hardwood
plantings we should see lots of young black walnut plantings when driving
along most roads in the central United States. I still see very few walnut
plantings and the nurseries keep cranking out seedlings. Recent forest
inventory data says that less than 1% of forestland with walnut is planted
walnut rather than natural regeneration. It was obvious to the Walnut
Council that either most the seedlings sent to landowners were not planted
or planted off-site and later converted to some other use. It is generally
recognized hardwood seedlings need 3 to 4 years of intensive aftercare if
they are to become established and reforest the land. What is important
here is how many acres are being reforested, not how may trees got planted.
Who cares if the Tree of Peace Society plants 1 billion trees if they don't
give the necessary aftercare to see that they survive to create additional
forestland.
Jerry Van Sambeek
jwvs@siu.edu
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