Forest program branches out to homeowners in Missoula

If you want a shade tree close to home this summer, the city of Missoula may bring
one and plant it for you at a discounted price of $90.

Yoshiaki Nohara
for the Kaimin

“I love trees. I can’t imagine the world void of trees,” said city forester Larry
Maginnis. “In the future people are benefiting from these tree plantings.”

According to Maginnis, many of the trees on the streets are getting old, and new
trees need to be planted for the future. As part of its urban forest program, the city
will be planting more than 100 of five kinds of shade trees — maple, ash, oak, linden
and crab apple — along the city streets and boulevards. The city will select and
plant trees for people who use the city’s new cost-share, tree-planting program, and
the $90 cost is far less than the $250 Maginnis said it would typically cost if
homeowners bought them from a store.

Ronald Wakimoto, a forestry professor at UM, said trees have benefits that people
sometimes don’t recognize.

Shade trees help cool homes in the summer and make the air cleaner, he said.

“They remove air pollution,” he said. “They take in CO2 and produce oxygen. They
also put more moisture in the air.”

Also, because of their beauty, trees boost property values, Wakimoto said.

“It tends to work out that those trees are worth thousands of dollars actually in terms
of evaluation,” he said.

But planting the trees takes scientific knowledge and skill because most of them are
not native to Missoula. Maginnis, a certified arborist and tree-care worker, selects a
tree and decides how to plant it after inspecting the property where it will be placed.

“I’m not going to put a beautiful tree in a yard if I know it’s going to die within two
years,” he said.

The trees need a lot of water to survive in Missoula’s dry air, especially in the
summer.

“Someone has to maintain them,” Maginnis said. “Or else they are going to start
falling apart.”

The city has a tree ordinance that requires homeowners to water and care for trees
adjacent to their property. The city is responsible for risk management such as
storm damage, dead tree removal and low-hanging branches.

But Maginnis said the city does most of the watering. Seven workers, including
Maginnis and two temporary workers, water most of the 15,000 trees on Missoula’s
streets in the summer.

The ordinance isn’t enforced often because only 50 percent of the people in the city
own houses, he said.

“Every year, every semester, there are new people coming in,” he said. “Every time I
try to look up who owns the house, somebody is out of state or something like that.”

People come and go quickly in a university town like Missoula.

“It’s just temporary housing,” he said. “If you are going to leave, all the work is
wasted.”

Maginnis, a UM graduate, said renters, most of whom are students, are unlikely to
take care of the trees.

“If they get an exam, they really don’t have the tree or the yard on their mind,” he
said.

Those who called him about the tree planting are strictly homeowners, Maginnis
said.

“Students don’t necessarily have $90 to throw down for a tree,” he said. “When I was
a student, I would have gotten a beer or something like that.”

But Maginnis said that whether they are homeowners or renters, people in the
community should take care of the trees. Current citizens are benefiting from the
trees now, and future citizens will benefit from new trees.

“I think people will be singing their praises eventually,” he said. “People are happy
when we have these trees. Someone 70 years ago planted these trees.”

For further information about the program, call Maginnis at 721-7275 or visit the Web
site of the city’s parks and recreation department at
http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/parksrec.

http://www.kaimin.org/April02/4-23-02/news6_4-23-02.html