“Trees give peace to the souls of men.” - Nora Waln

When I was young, Summit Avenue was a tunnel of elm trees. I sadly can't find any pictures from that time, but it was fairly similar to this:

Then, during the 1970s, Dutch Elm Disease overtook the tree stock, and they were all cut down. My mom was not a major community activist, but I remember going to one meeting with her and the neighbors clamoring angrily about it and the city talking about ways to avoid it happening again. I dressed up as an elm tree, complete with a line of red reflective tape around my middle, that Halloween.

When I bought my own home in 1993, I was actually surprised that all the trees on our block were the same . Shouldn't there be a diversity of planting, so that there would not be a repeat of the elm trees? I became involved on the Summit-University Planning Council, and listened to city officials tell us that the only way to handle planting urban blocks was a monoculture. It seemed...odd...

The past few days, I've watched them cut down scores of ash trees surrounding my home.

This was Monday morning a little farther down my street:

These are from this morning:

Before/After:

There are a few trees left, either different species, or ones that homeowners chose to save and pay for the treatment of. Sadly, as my friend pointed out, it just exacerbates the differences; while some homes saved their trees, none of the apartment buildings did, so the loss hit them especially hard and exacerbated the difference.

To some extend, I get this, at least more than I did awhile back. I'm frustrated with the city for not promoting EAB treatment easier and working with the community. At first I did not see why they all needed to go — why not wait until they were clearly infected before cutting them down? But as I heard more from city officials, I understand why they feel they need to cut them all down now, even as I strongly disagree.

But I do think this is a failure of planning in the past — and I am waiting with bated breath as to how this will be handled now. The city claims that there will be rapid replanting, but blocks of Grand Avenue, where the trees were cut last year, still stand treeless and glaring.

I want this to be better than it is.

The name of my street, ironically, is "Ashland."