A Canopy Where it Counts
Abstract
As Pomeranz explains, interest in restoring the city's trees came even before the storm was over, with one local business owner calling him to help and offering $50,000 toward replanting the city's trees. Volunteer groups, many coordinated by Trees Forever, a regional nonprofit advocacy group based in nearby Marion, are taking to the streets and parks to plant trees. "Urban forestry as it's practiced in most cities is based on an incomplete understanding of thingsdiversity, tree size, spacing," says Speck, pointing to the writings of people such as the German forester Peter Wohlleben-the author of The Hidden Life of Trees-that illustrate the increasing awareness of social relationships between trees. The team responded to those ideas in many ways, from questioning the conventional spacing of street trees 40 feet apart to encouraging more mutualistic associations between urban trees. Among the native tree types encouraged are oaks, hickories, and walnuts-genera that are known not only for their size but also for their rich forage for wildlife and humans-as well as Midwestern familiars like cottonwood and Kentucky coffee tree. Analysis of the city's canopy conducted in the wake of the storm confirmed that Cedar Rapids, like many cities around the country, had fewer trees in poorer parts of the community, which in turn magnified the loss of the benefits that trees bring, such as improved air quality and its associated health contributions, lower summer temperatures that reduce energy costs, and higher property values. To communicate the broad principles of the effort, the plan includes a set of catchy "ReLeaf Rules" such as "Let Trees Mingle," which encourages people to "Where possible, plant trees in groups and close together." The last rule, "Break the Grass Habit," encourages homeowners to move away from lawns and toward a more resilient landscape inspired by the prairies and woodlands of Eastern Iowa, one that recognizes that ground covers and the bugs that crawl in them can be just as important to urban forest health as the tree canopy above.
