City Trees is a premier publication focused on urban + community forestry. In each issue, you’ll learn how to best manage the trees in your community and more!
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/75614
The Dirty Thirties/Dust Bowl Lack of vegetation contributed to the devastation of the Dust Bowl in 1930s' Dallas, South Dakota. Photo USDA Public Domain Community volunteers work on their street tree inventory in Platte, South Dakota. • Photo Courtesy SD Division of Resource Conservation & Forestry cation and inventory protocols. During these troubled economic times, it is easy for community leaders to cut funding to community forestry programs to save money. Often times, they do not see the full benefits trees give us. Tree inventories allow us to show the economic savings provided by trees; they allow us to put a dollar amount on what some consider an intrinsic value. There are 30 South Dakota communities with complete street tree inventories. This year Sioux Falls, Aberdeen, Custer, Brookings, Vermillion, and Whitewood began their street tree inventories. Over the next few years, RCF will be expanding the inventories into new com- munities and our Tree City USA communities to help us understand and better care for the state's community tree resource. To that end, RCF administers the Community Forestry Challenge Grant program. This grant program allows for communities or other organizations to apply for up to $5,000 to complete a street tree inventory. Many of our communities have utilized this program to fund an inven- tory they never would have been able to afford. Additional grant information is available at: www.sdda.sd.gov/for- estry/grants-loans/urban-forestry-comprehensive.aspx. With the approach of emerald ash borer (EAB), thou- sand cankers disease of black walnut, and a whole host of other insects and diseases, tree inventories are becoming ever more crucial in the protection of our community forests. To help community leaders www.urban-forestry.com According to the National Climatic Data Center, "The Dust Bowl drought was a natural disaster that severely affected much of the United States dur- ing the 1930s. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939-40, but some regions of the High Plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years. The dust bowl effect was caused by sustained drought conditions com- pounded by years of land management practices that left topsoil susceptible to the forces of the wind. The soil, depleted of moisture, was lifted by the wind into great clouds of dust and sand that were so thick they concealed the sun for several days at a time." understand the benefits of tree inventories, and to help them prepare for the inevitable arrival of EAB, we used the tree inventories to get an idea of what kind of ash resource is out there, in what condition, and calculate approximately how much it would cost to remove and replace the ash trees. Approximately 37% of South Dakota's street trees are green ash. While that number sounds high, for some of our communities that percentage reaches as high as 60%. This is huge. On the low end, our communities risk losing a third of their street tree resource; on the high end, they risk losing two-thirds. This information has helped motivate many communities to do their first community tree inventory! Partially in response to EAB, tree boards and citizen groups have popped up across the state, and citizens from young to old have begun to recognize the need and importance of the trees that they grew up with. Our community foresters and RCF will continue to give pre- sentations and workshops on community forest invento- ries and tree benefits, lead inventories, and help any South Dakotan care for their community tree resource. 15