Partial to Home: Why we should care about trees
Birney Imes
When’s the best time to plant a tree?
Answer: Twenty years ago.
Answer: Now.
The same set of answers could apply to the question, when should a community set up a program to manage its trees?
So says Misty Booth, the Starkville-based Urban and Community Forestry coordinator for the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC).
Trees are part of a city’s infrastructure and as such need management, says Booth.
The Columbus of my childhood radiated from a Main Street lined with lovely turn-of-the-century homes shaded by tall, graceful oaks and elms. The homes have disappeared, making way for banks, convenience stores and commercial buildings, while many of the trees, on Main and elsewhere, have been lost to time and indifference.