James Kielbaso is a space pioneer.
Not that he`s ever studied astronomy, donned a space suit or worked for NASA.
The space that Kielbaso wants to conquer is the thousands of miles of city streets where there are no trees.
``We need to get out there with 60 million more trees and get them planted, and it`s going to take us a long time. So we`d better get on the ball.``
Kielbaso, who heads the urban forestry department at Michigan State University, gave that warning recently at a national conference called
``Making Our Cities Safe For Trees,`` sponsored by the American Forestry Association and more than a dozen other groups. In all, more than 600 urban planners, foresters and environmental activists met to talk about threats facing America`s urban forests, about why it`s important to safeguard trees and how to do that.
Central to the Forestry Association`s goals is Global ReLeaf, an ambitious project to plant 100 million large trees across America`s cities by 1992. A Chicago group this month planted trees in the city as part of the effort. Organizers say they can`t calculate a price tag on Global ReLeaf because they plan to get contributions of time, trees and equipment from communities, corporations and, to a small degree, the government. In fact, they stress that Global ReLeaf is not a government project but a grass-roots effort that echoes an old axiom: The personal is political.
``We`re seeing a new environmental ethic, one that`s different from the
`60s,`` says Deborah Gangloff, spokesman for the AFA and a coordinator of ReLeaf. ``It`s the politics of improving rather than preserving our environment. And it`s not done with protests, complaints or pickets, but in a very positive way. You just can`t sit in your living room and cry about this: You make a personal commitment to the environment.``
According to Kielbaso, there`s plenty to cry about, without even considering environmental mega-problems like soil erosion, the Greenhouse effect and tropical deforestation, all of which could be mitigated by the presence of more trees.
Kielbasa rattled off the proof of just how dangerous it is out there for our fair-leaved friends:
- In the country`s 20 largest cities, four trees are being uprooted for every one that`s planted. In 320 cities, the rate is less dramatic but hardly encouraging: With a ratio of about one tree removed for every one planted, tree populations in most cities are just holding even.
- America`s cities have about 60 million street trees in all. If they were planted at an ideal setting of 30 feet apart, they`d cover an area no larger than the Florida Everglades. With an average of 102 trees per city mile, there`s room for 66.7 million more.
- On the average, there`s .386 street trees per person. Kielbaso says the goal should be 1 per person.
- Cities usually devote less that half of 1 percent of their budgets to trees, and most of it goes to removing dead ones rather than planting new ones. Kielbaso says a fairer amount to spend on city trees would be 1 percent: ``That`s not too much to ask of a city budget,`` he says.
Kielbaso backs up his ardor for arbor with logic: Trees are relatively inexpensive to plant and maintain, yet their presence increases property taxes and therefore a city`s revenue base. They could help cut down on energy costs (to the tune of about $4 billion a year), improve esthetics and mitigate environmental degradations, especially the Greenhouse effect. In short, trees can make cities a better place to live.
R. Neal Sampson, executive vice president of the Forestry Association, agrees wholeheartedly: ``We`re not talking about forestry; we`re talking about the quality of people`s daily lives.
``The benefits of trees, especially in terms of psychological and economic aspects, are probably being documented now more than ever before. Our role is to take a scientific approach and make it relevant to the average homeowner and taxpayer.
``We are just coming out of an era when we thought the city environment should be a very controlled, dominated area. We`ve sealed up buildings for air conditioning. We thought cities could be made comfortable with air conditioning, and that anyone who was worth anything would jump into their cars and go home to air conditioning.
``But then there were a lot of crises, energy crises, social crises. And we find we can`t afford to air condition office buildings and we can`t afford to get into those stupid little cars anymore and leave it behind, and that anyway, the people we have left behind are miserable.``
Kielbaso and Sampson say cities need to develop a canopy of trees, not just ``lollipops,`` as Kielbaso calls most streetside arbors potted in overgrown flowerpots.