In This, Too, A Time To Every Purpose

Generations have grown up, and grown old, beneath their massive branches. Little children launched boats into the pond. Teens flirted on the grass. Adults, vigorous in the prime of life, jogged along the shore. Grandparents rested in the shade.

But the willow trees of Manito Park are gone now. The chain saws nearly have finished their work. Fresh sawdust covers the grass, and massive stumps, some 4 feet across, spread like wounds along the duck pond’s shore. It is not an easy sight to contemplate.

All over the city, for months to come, saws will continue to fell the urban forest.

Last winter’s ice storm forced Spokane to face the fact that its trees are old and, in some cases, have to be removed and replaced.

It’s healthy to lament the loss of their beauty.

But it is foolish to vilify the city for cutting the trees. A generation ago, if a tree toppled on you, people would say it must have been your time to go. If a tree falls on you today, there will be a lawyer chasing the hearse, offering to dig some gold from the landowner who neglected to inspect it, detect the weakness and cut the thing down. When the landowner in question is the city, the damages will come straight from the pockets of the city’s taxpayers.

So, if the city has erred, cutting trees that might have stood tall and strong through another decade of storms, at least it has erred on the side of prudence.

Before it sent in the saws, the Parks and Recreation Department sent in several independent arborists - professionals who inspected the willows, found rot and recommended removal. Trees have limited life spans, and some species have shorter lives than others. Willows begin to die after 70 years or so - the age of the huge specimens in Manito Park.

Many other trees in Spokane - along the streets as well as in the parks - also are nearing the age when rot and disease may make them a hazard. The ice storm underscored the point.

Now we have an opportunity to assess the trees and replace them - but only if needed! - as a gift to the future. Jim Flott, horticulture manager for the city Parks and Recreation Department, says he hopes the community will improve its urban forest by replanting with a diversity of species. Instead of rot-prone willows, Manito Park is going to bloom, for generations to come, with a riot of color from tougher, longer-lived varieties: burr oak, ornamental cherries, purple ashes, dawn redwoods, black alders.

In diversity, there is strength as well as beauty. Cities with only a few kinds of trees risk losing them all at once to age, bugs or disease. That’s a fact of horticulture - and a lesson for other realms of life as well.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster For the editorial board