[MissoulaGov] Goals for Council

[Geoff Badenoch]

One Thousand New Gardens, a group I spend a lot of time with, has talked
about the value of trees, and in particular, fruit trees.  Someday, people
will expect friends and/or family to give and plant a fruit tree as a
housewarming present to new homeowners until the day comes no house is
bought or sold without at least a couple of fruit trees. Haven't figured out
how to do that for multifamily housing situations.

 

Geoff Badenoch

 

-----Original Message-----
From: missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com
[mailto:missoulagov-bounces at cmslists.com] On Behalf Of Patrick Nooney
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 1:21 AM
To: 'Eric Taylor'; jmcgrath at missoulahousing.org; bjaffe at ci.missoula.mt.us;
missoulagov at cmslists.com
Subject: Re: [MissoulaGov] Goals for Council

 

The urban forest is an interesting concept, almost a looking-glass
wanderlust to a treasured past.  I remember growing up in a small town where
outside my backdoor were a 1000 acres of unmanaged woodlands-a wonderful
time.  Now maybe a quarter of it remains, the rest developed into
high-density housing.

 

The suggestion of getting foresters from the government (yes, the university
is the government) or their professional advice is only part of the pie.
Forestry deals primarily with sustainable habitats on a landscape scale.
Urban forestry needs a blended approach, more toward the older traditional
view of ecology.  This approach merges forestry, horticulture and biological
concepts.  It could also incorporate composting, biomass production and a
number of other "green" concepts.  Whatever, it should be more holistic in
action and long-term in thought. 

 

I would certain caution against the temptation to imagine funding from
universities and other government entities.  Everyone is broke, bankrupt or
on the dole.  If you need money, go to AIG or the banks or China.  There is
certainly no more tax money to be had from us overly stressed taxpayers.
So, whatever is done has to be within our existing means.

 

Finally, I want to comment on your advocacy for ".a strong coalition of
folks to address our neglected urban forest."  On a quick read, the
statement infers that our urban forest has been neglected by a nefarious
force.  But then I realize that "our" is the possessive form of "we".  In
that case, the statement infers that we neglected our urban forest, which is
truer.  The solution then lies with what each of us can learn and do to care
for the piece of urban forest within our little domain on each of our blocks
in each of our neighborhoods.  That would be doing something within our
means without relying on Big Brother to save us from damnation.

 

Patrick

 

 

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