The Glorious, Worthy of Praise Hybrid Dwarf Crab Apple Tree

March 19, 2017: Clintonville Wisconsin, the day before the old trees that line Main St. are to be removed.

Clintonville yards were once thick with green, lush, moist.  (Some still are.)  Understory and ground growth along the lot borders were left in place, perhaps you could see your neighbor’s roof but certainly not your neighbor.  Push mowers kept the British grasses low.

Foreign to our land and Americanize (Kentucky Blue), these grasses had become a part of that dark green richness. This is still before the time when people became obsessed about other plants growing in a lawn or with even a single tree leaf that may have fallen on it.  Before the fallen leaf was considered litter, trash… when the trees that lined our streets were homegrown, strong, fruit-seed-nut bearing forest giants.

On Clintonville’s Main St the giant’s canopies once formed a green tunnel and in fall a short-lived tunnel of brilliant colors that could never be taken for granted. Then Monarch Butterfly cocoons and bird nests frequented the architecture.  Two species of forest birds might be seen lighting out of the canopy to engage in a tug of war over a discarded piece of string. A young boy might be hit with a bird dropping and would imagine one of the forest birds had landed on his shoulder without him knowing it.

In late summer Beechnuts, Butternuts, Walnuts, American Chestnuts would begin to rain down covering portions of the road and sidewalks.  Gray Squirrels were employed full time burying them one by one, never to be retrieved.  This further enriched the soil. In another time, if ever left alone these seeds would regenerate the forest after the giants fell. 

Rich growth of shrubs surrounded many of the houses, helping the homes stay warm or cool depending on the season. But somehow it was  passed to those people and then to us, to you, that this was all a nuisance: the falling leaves, the animals, too many birds, the roof moss, the insects, that it was all a mess.  So we went about “cleaning up” the outside, it seemed it had to be sanitized like the inside of a house.  Trees and shrubs were cut back, removed further from the structures or just removed.  Then more and more ground growth and the remaining forest understory were cleaned up leaving more room for the smooth tamable British grasses.  Lush greenery began to diminish and the views of green were replaced with that of neighbor’s homes and lawn. With decades of diligent ‘cleaning’: raking and removal of leaves, nuts, hulks, seeds, droppings, brush, weeds, trimmings, snags, nesting cavities and trees themselves, the soil weakened. 

Somehow, now generations off the farm, the idea crept in that the soils were eternal, bio-renewable and despite removing, removing, removing, they would renew themselves out of thin air.  In fact it became an unspoken cultural norm to believe we could cut and cut the plants and wood without consequence. The greenery was named renewable energy as if each time we removed the growth the soil would remain eternally strong!  But in tens of thousands of towns and cities, after 100 years of raking, trimming, cutting, gleaning and cleaning the litter, the trees began to weaken.   The more they weakened, the more they became diseased and the more they were perceived as garbage, trash, litter, nuisances and hazards.  So they were further cleaned up: trimmed, cut away, cut down and even the ‘unsightly’ stumps were removed as they were seen as blight on the expanding and expansive lawn, that perfect ground cover with no rival. If desired, not a single tree leaf may lie and decay back into the weakened soil.

The giants that shaded our homes and protected them as windshields in the cold months were being taken down. Our exhaled air, the CO2, the life gas of everything green, our lush heritage, was labeled a pollutant. Too much of it they said.  Cars, like those that once drove through Main Street’s green tunnel were also spewing too much of it.  A call went out:  Ride a bike instead.  Tomorrow, the first day of Spring,  the majority of the remaining oxygen-making giants, some weak and diseased, and many majestically strong, will be cut down and hauled away, so that a one mile long bicycle path can be added to Main St., mandated by the Dept. of Transportation. For those who choose to believe that this is done because CO2 is a danger, the CO2 converting giants will be gone;  the homes will need to more energy for heating and cooling. The birds of 100 generations can move somewhere else, can’t they?   The remarkable green tunnel will never have a chance to appear again.

As time progresses we can tell our kids, grand kids, nieces and nephews the story of why our streets are dotted with pretty hybrid dwarf crab apple trees.

Comments by life long residents:

"I can't remember the last time I saw a bike ride up Main Street"

"Clinton St runs parallel to that section of Main Street. For $100 the DOT could put up a bike route sign"