Re-treeing

By James Krohe Jr.

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My recent column calling for the re-treeing Springfield – “Something there is that doesn't love a tree,” which of course should have been titled “Someone there is who doesn’t love a tree” – didn’t say quite everything that might have been said on that topic.

A seldom unremarked-upon aspect of the history of Illinois is the war long waged by its people on trees. Millions of majestic mature hardwoods were slain, prairie groves plundered, bottomland forests cleared. People later accepted trees in cities but grudgingly, and usually treated them as if they were unruly shrubs. Urban planner Myron West, describing Springfield in the 1920s, lamented the “tree butchery” that he saw across the city. (Private property owners were then allowed to prune, even to cut down trees on public property as they saw fit.) Still happens. When I lived on the West Coast I seemed forever to be reading stories about how some rich homeowner had hired a crew to sneak in and chop down trees on their neighbor’s property (or, once, on state park land) because they blocked their expensive views.

About The Author

James Krohe Jr.

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