THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 31, 1994 TAG: 9407290243
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Over the past dozen or so years, many trees have been planted in this city, courtesy of Adelaide Eberly and other Arbor Day supporters.
We proudly proclaim on a regular basis that we are a ``Tree City.''
All of this is positive and, for sure, we should be glad to know somebody cares enough to plant trees.
But what about all the trees that have been removed in our older neighborhoods? Does anybody care?
Madeline Morris Grimes of Port Norfolk appealed to City Council last week for a moratorium on removal of living trees until the city can establish a formal tree policy.
Grimes said residents of Port Norfolk met with Lydia P. Patton, Marilee Hawkins and Luke McCoy, all top executives in the city, to discuss such a policy in January.
``Since then, more than 12 trees, some of them alive and healthy, have been removed,'' Grimes said. ``And we don't have a policy yet.''
Grimes said the neighborhood activists were particularly upset by the practice of removing live trees and failing to replace them.
``If it's not in the budget to replace them, how can you cut down healthy, living trees?'' she asked.
Noting that council ``can't stop some things'' from happening, Grimes added, ``You can stop this.''
Mayor Gloria Webb asked City Manager Wayne Orton to ``help us understand what's going on.''
Meanwhile, what is happening?
The general attitude seems to be one of apathy toward trees. Yet trees make all the difference in the appearance and feel of the city.
Portsmouth has many old streets with beautiful houses all over town. Most of those streets were tree-lined not too many years ago.
The mayor said she had noticed in Port Norfolk that ``things look different with the trees missing.''
Over the past year I've become very aware of the missing trees around town. During the two years I worked in North Carolina, I spent very little time here. When I returned to Portsmouth, I began to wonder what it was that made certain blocks look different. During the winter, it was not so obvious.
Come spring when the trees began to come out, I realized that an amazing number of large trees had been cut down during my absence. Their demise changed the face of things drastically because nothing had been planted to replace any of them.
Unless one of the destroyed trees is on your block, you're not sure exactly what has changed. When you pass a block every day, you're not even aware of how many trees are being destroyed.
Then, one day it hits.
That happened to me in Park View, where 15 years ago there were many blocks well-shaded by tall leafy trees. You could look down one of the streets and for blocks it would be shaded from the summer sun, inviting on a hot day.
One by one, the trees have been taken down. Now many blocks have no shade, nothing to break the harsh summer sun, nothing to help purify the air.
The same thing is happening in Port Norfolk and other old neighborhoods.
Trees are expensive but they might pay in part for themselves.
Real estate people say trees add to the value of a house. If that's true, then the city would regain some of the cost of tree replacement through the resulting higher real estate taxes.
Actually, there are people in every neighborhood who want to plant new trees when a diseased or dead tree must come down.
I previously have suggested in this space that the city organize a tree-planting project beyond the annual Arbor Day project.
If the city would buy trees at competitive prices, individuals and civic leagues would pay for them in honor or memory of someone.
Grimes' request of the city was timely and the moratorium on cutting live trees might save one or two in Port Norfolk.
But, more important, her request might spur the formation of a tree policy that, among other things, requires that at least one tree be planted for every one removed. Or maybe we should make that two trees for every one that gets the ax.
KEYWORDS: TREES
by CNB