Report on the Urban Forest

Heaton Street, US 35, Where are the trees?

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I speak of Desert without repose
Carved by relentless winds
Torn up from its bowels
Blinded by sands
Unsheltered solitary
Yellow as death
Wrinkled like parchment
Face turned to the sun. (Chedid 1995)

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There is a lot less shade on the streets of Knox, Indiana than there used to be. This is one of the reasons that Knox is much more ugly than it was 20 years ago. The widening of US 35 destroyed nearly every shade tree on Heaton Street. Storms and disease have destroyed over 50% of the shade trees on the residential portion of Main Street. The sidewalks of Main Street were once a pleasant shaded haven on a hot summer’s day. Try walking up and down Main Street in the late afternoon. The sun is beating down on you nearly the whole time. The heat absorbed by the street pavement and the sidewalks is released in the afternoon when the temperature would naturally tend to start falling. The result is an unrelenting oven effect.

Other streets share the same problems. There is a city ordinance requiring the planting of shade trees along the streets of Knox. This ordinance has been neither enforced nor observed. Where trees have been planted, people have tended to plant away from the street, in the center of their lawn, and more often than not, ornamentals like flowering crab or the almost ubiquitous ornamental pear have been chosen. These trees will never shade the sidewalk and street. Businesses, governmental units and residences have been guilty of ignoring this basic element in our quality of life.

The social theory is not difficult to comprehend. We give up a personal freedom (in this case the freedom not to have a couple shade trees in front of your house in exchange for a collective (in this case a more pleasant environment and better quality of life). I think that most people do actually agree with this concept. We bemoan the fact that our society is getting fatter, emphasizing the well worn but valid case that we don’t get enough exercise. Well I don’t want to walk the streets of Knox in the summer when the sun is bearing down. So we are now, by not enforcing the city code, collectively discouraging that exercise that we all agree would be such a good idea.

Take a drive around town (or a walk around town for the tougher amoung us). Notice how few decent shade trees remain. What a shame.