ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080004
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: LG-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX
How much water does a willow tree suck up in 24 hours? How can I grow an apple tree from seed? Is the weed my child ate poisonous?
The reference librarians at the Roanoke County library headquarters on Electric Road can help find the answers to these and many, many more questions with the help of books, video tapes, pamphlets, periodicals and even an interactive CD ROM that make up an urban tree resource center.
It's not a center, really, not in the specific, physical sense of the word. But with several years' hard work by the Urban Forestry Council and reference librarians such as Ruth Lipnik, interested citizens can use materials available throughout this library to learn to take care of their own trees, plan and design tree landscaping for their homes, or identify trees.
Lipnik said it seems as if every child in every school system all at once comes into the library once a year on a tree leaf-identification assignment. Necessity being the mother of invention, Lipnik began to stock - and sell for $1 - a "Forest Trees of Virginia" book published by the Department of Forestry.
Meanwhile, Charles Blankenship, retired from the U.S. Forest Service, helped form an area Urban Forestry Council that he said is made up of a diverse citizen group of foresters, horticulturists, arborists, lawyers, teachers and business people. The group's goal, he said, is to assist other groups, such as Valley Beautiful, while collaborating on tree-planting projects around town.
Lipnik and Blankenship said at this point the center, which opened in 1993, has just about met its resource goal.
"We determined what the most useful books were, and we've gone through most of our list now,'' said Lipnik. The list includes coffee table-size books and pamphlets, three periodicals, tapes on trees of the mid-Atlantic region, landscape design books, and identification guides.
The current political situation is "really threatening to our project,'' said Blankenship, and the council is taking an active role in changing the governor's mind with regard to certain budget cuts. Blankenship said they are already feeling the budgetary squeeze.
"As Extension people diminish, we are going to be responsive to questions they normally answer,'' he said.
With about 81 percent of Virginians living in urban settings, said Blankenship, tree care is of increased concern. In 1991, there were 35 active volunteer urban forestry groups in Virginia. That number had escalated to 54 in 1995. Local grants, on the other hand, have dropped from $408,000 to $320,400 within the same time period.
Lipnik said she has learned a lot about trees from helping to set up this center. The way "people take trees for granted'' has taught her that you have to take care of trees. "If you want to keep your trees and land healthy, it's not cheap,'' she said.
Lipnik said a homeowner interested in using the center's CD ROM, "Southern Trees, An Expert Version For Selecting Trees," by the University of Florida and the USDA Forest Service, Southern Region, should complete a site analysis questionnaire first.
They will need to know particulars such as light exposure, soil quality, annual rainfall, irrigation and purpose the tree in question may serve. After answering these questions, turn on the CD and have at it. The CD has color photographs of trees, shows them fully developed so that the homeowner may see the finished crown size and shape, and will print out information on the trees in its index.
The winter of 1994 was hard on trees in this region. Since then, tree replanting efforts, both at a municipal and nonprofit organizational level, have increased, as has attention to preservation.
Blankenship said he believes it is our responsibility to leave a legacy. The tree resource center may just facilitate that legacy.
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