This wouldn’t be the Ag Extension column if we weren’t talking about life cycles, right? You know the drill: roots feed microbes, microbes make soil, soil feeds plants, plants feed animals, and trees feed real estate agents.
wait what Okay, okay – a touch of jocularity crept in there. But haven’t you heard people moved to Choteau for the trees? You might even be one of those people. Or if your family is from here, it’s probably your grandparents and great-grandparents, whom we can thank for tending the trees, that elicit comments like “so beautiful” from strangers when they say you’re from Choteau. The same generation planted the protective belt that today blocks the wind and shades your home in the country. One thing is certain – when it comes to trees and people, only the toughest of settlers have survived our windswept prairies.
If Mother Nature were left to her own devices, we would see very few trees in the city except for the waterfront. It’s definitely tough country for a tree. But to be honest, if nature had our way, we would leave tracks on an imposing grass surface instead of on concrete and asphalt. Therefore, talking about what is “natural” in relation to our city trees may be less relevant than talking about “what works” and “what is desirable.” How much effort should we put into preserving our domesticated forest, the deciduous heritage of previous generations? Are trees worth the resources required to plant, water, cut, and sometimes remove them?
Evidence says yes. Shadow is a particularly valuable service, both in dollars and in less easily quantifiable ways. Metal, asphalt, and concrete reflect and radiate far more solar energy than plants, and without mature trees, a neighborhood can be filled with harsh lights and unrelenting summer heat. An example of the magnitude of the shadow effect: the kind of people who like to experiment have shown that the temperature inside a car parked in full sun can be 47 degrees hotter than a car parked nearby in the shade parked under a tree. Kids love to play on swings and slides that aren’t hot enough to burn their little legs. And shade is not only more convenient, but also more attractive. Everyone knows the tree of Ona Jaumotte! Trees provide some privacy between neighbors. For all of these reasons, healthy, well-placed trees add thousands of dollars (in some cases, reportedly tens of thousands) to home values for homeowners. This economic boom is also being felt by homeowners and businesses with no trees but close to beautifully wooded parks and boulevards.
We haven’t even talked about biology. Fallen leaves and needles make great mulch and compost. Trees provide habitat for birds. Tree roots prevent soil erosion and resist soil compaction (and yes, and sometimes sidewalks too. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, is there?) Trees absorb air pollutants and carbon dioxide and produce oxygen in return. In fact, a mature tree can absorb a car’s CO2 emissions from a year’s driving (roughly 26,000 miles/year). I could go on, but you get the picture: Trees provide services that are easily taken for granted—until you live somewhere without trees.
How are our native trees doing? This was one of many things discussed at the Tree Board Retreat in Choteau last week. Brian Jorgenson, a forester at the Department for Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), shared data from a tree survey he conducted in Choteau in 2022. This inventory includes only trees on boulevards, in parks, and on public land. It turns out that most of our public trees are in good condition (57%) and some are in good condition (15%). The remainder are in poor condition (24%) or dead or dying (4%). Given the extreme drought we were in it seems a fair to medium report. But we could rise or fall from here depending on future rainfall and our shared tree care practices.
In Choteau, as in most communities, the care of the boulevard trees is the responsibility of the adjacent landowner, although the city technically owns the trees and often procures and plants new or replacement boulevard trees. Even with optimal care, some trees succumb to drought, disease, pests, or old age every year. Of course, depending on the location, these dead or dying urban trees can be risky and need to be removed. That can get pretty expensive. With suboptimal care, which seems to be a popular way of tree care, trees gradually weaken and eventually die prematurely. That’s expensive too.
Why is suboptimal tree care “a thing”? hmm I will only speak for this homeowner. I like trees and I want to please them, and somehow I get there. But the units of my attention span are minutes to weeks, while the units of tree responses are seasons to years. For example, a bad pruning in one season may not kill a tree until six or seven years later, at which point that person might mistakenly consider themselves innocent. “It must have been that early frost,” I say. In fact, I’m trying to remember how I ended up having two codominant trunks (not a healthy structure) in my parents’ pedigree. And of course, water isn’t free. That is a consideration for many of us. But here’s the million-dollar question (literally!) for cities in Teton County — is suboptimal tree care interfering with our ability to keep up with tree wear?
According to professional arborists who track tree survival rates nationwide, for every four city trees that die or are removed, only one is replaced. The average lifespan of replacement trees in cities and towns is reported to be eight years. I spoke to Mike Maples, Choteau’s director of public works, to see how these national trends match his local observations. He agreed, adding that many replacement trees on our boulevards are not celebrating their third anniversary. My thoughts – since it takes about 10 years for a tree to reach its maximum productivity, we are probably not on the right track to preserving our beautiful heritage. It seems we need more trees and, more importantly, better survival to maturity.
What to do? As a first step, individual homeowners can use the resources we already have, but better, smarter, slower. Did you stumble over the last word – “slower”? Well, stay tuned as we continue this discussion over the next few weeks emphasizing proper tree care. Next week we’ll start with easy-to-remember tips on how to get the most out of your money.
Jenn Swanson is the Teton County/MSU Extension agent who works with agriculture and the 4-H program. She can be reached in the office at 406-466-2491 or on her cell phone at 406-868-4570 or by email at Jenn.Swanson@montana.edu.
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