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"
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"
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