Museum of Art in four groves, called bosques.
His search for techniques fueled the writing
of this fascinating history of these practices
by ancient (and more recent) civilizations.
Not only are sprouts "important" in pruning,
I found, they are the reason there are any
trees or shrubs at all, and they are the reason
that there are any people at all. For all but
the last two centuries of human history,
the whole point of pruning was to produce
sprouts … for when these sprouts grew
up they gave people firewood, charcoal,
building wood, ship timber, fence posts,
slender willow whips (called withies) to tie
knots with, hedges, fodder, fiber, rope, and
baskets ... without them, human beings
would not have made it past the Neolithic.
You may wonder what function the London
planes on the Metropolitan's grounds are
serving the City, since their pollard-produced
shoots are not being used for more than
what Logan calls "a playful wattle fence."
Our four little groves of London planes
are not only strange and beautiful … By
staying small on the paved plaza, the planes
do not grow big heavy branches, which
they might drop in a storm on an unfortu-
nate passerby. With the annual pruning,
their roots too remain small. They do not
buckle the pavement, lift the sidewalk, or
create lips of concrete upon which a person
might trip. They cast a shade that is cooling
but not too deep and wide. Other plants
can grow among and beside them …
Part of Logan's enchantment with coppicing
and pollarding is knowing that these techniques
could once again be used on a massive scale
by humans in an age of otherwise shrinking
resources. Where pollarding has been useful
in preventing livestock feeding on the new
shoots, pollarding could now be employed
to generate shoots above the deer chewing
line. In exploring how that could reconnect
humans deeply to trees, and in his writing
generally, Logan displays a lyricism and
expository power that I greatly admire.
Pollarded
willows.
Pixabay
Pollarded
willow
"knuckles"
Pixabay
36 CityTREES
