Local Ecologist

Due to an injury we will be posting very #shortreads here and via @localecologist and on Facebook .  Stay tuned for photos and videos , too.

I read about the segment on tree-lined streets in San Francisco produced by Humankind in the Earth Day issue of the Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) e-newsletter.  You can listen to a free excerpt here .  The show's host, David Freudberg, interviewed regular FUF tree planter Charlie Starbuck and City of San Francisco's official urban forester Carla Short.  The Humankind show page features two quotes taken from the interviews with Starbuck and Short which I think illustrate the gradient of positive perspectives on trees in cities.  Here are the quotes: Image: Tree planting at Ditmas Park West courtesy of Flatbush Gardener ( source ) "[When people come together to plant street trees] it brings the neighborhood together. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been planting trees, and people that have been living on the same block for five or ten years have not met each other, and they’ll meet over planting a tree, and become good friends, as well as their children.&qu

Image: Stuyvesant pear tree, N.E. corner of 13th & 3rd Ave, NYC ( source )  A pear tree belonging to Peter Stuyvesant once grew on the corner of E. 13th Street and Third Avenue.  Former governor Stuyvesant owned a bouwerij* (farm) in the area.  Excerpted from an article in The Villager : The spot was once home to what was believed to have been the oldest tree in New York City, planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant, the former Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, after he brought it from Holland. The spot became known as “Pear Tree Corner.” However, in 1857, two horse-drawn carriages collided and plowed into the tree, killing it. Kiehl’s was founded in 1851, and used to be on the corner, where it was called Pear Tree Pharmacy, for Stuyvesant’s tree. A Callery pear ( Pyrus calleryana ) was planted in honor of Stuyvesant's tree in 2003. The original pear would have been a different species of Pyrus , most likely Pyrus communis (European pear). * A major native Am

Image: Boston Tree Party Inauguration, April 10, 2011 ( source ) The first place we saw a Boston Tree Party apple tree was on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  The Greenway was the site of the organization's inauguration in April 2011 with " a marching band, speeches, flags, buttons and banners " akin to a political party.  The organization is also modeled on a political party with delegations (more later) and conventions.  The Boston Tree Party was founded by Lisa Gross as her thesis project for her MFA degree from Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Image: East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, May 14, 2011 ( source ) Last year, the Boston Tree Party planted 70 heirloom apple trees (or 35 pairs) with over 50 different communities. In four years, these 70 trees can produce 10,000 - 15,000 apples per year. Need more wow? An apple trees can live between 50 to 100 years -- that's a lot of apples! If you are wondering why the apples are pla