Long-term effort grows city's trees

The Kalispell Street Tree Commission is a solid branch of the Parks and Recreation Department that's been growing strong for the past 19 years.

According to Chairman Bette Albright, a member ot the commission since its inception, Mayor Ed Kennedy originally planted the seed for an advisory council to the parks department responsible for cataloging, counting and recording the condition of the city's trees.

As Kalispell's mayor recognized back in 1986, the parks department is aware of the valuable commodity the community has in its sumptuously arbored parks and boulevards.

Taking care of Kalispell's 5,000-plus trees, many of which are over 100 years old, takes planning. The department uses modern urban forestry practices to preserve, maintain and improve the quality of the city's trees, which were valued at $15 million when they were formally assessed 15 years ago.

Nearly 50 percent of those are Norway maples, planted between 1910 and 1930 during a campaign inspired by the first head of the Kalispell Water Department, William H. Lawrence. The majority of the rest are the American elms planted at the turn of the 20th century, green ash, European mountain ash and horse chestnut.

Twice a year the six volunteer members of the Street Tree Commission, along with students from Flathead High School's Anchor Club, work together to raise money for the Trees to Paper to Trees recycling drives. Last Saturday's drive brought in more than 10 tons of newspaper.

Trees to Paper to Trees is supported by Pacific Recycling which provides and then hauls away the recycling containers; TLC Landscaping, which also donates trucks; Domino's and Pizza Hut, which take turns feeding the volunteer crew; and the Daily Inter Lake, which publicizes drives, seeing that its commodity eventually does double duty for the city.

Together with the cardboard, aluminum and other paper the community brings in, each drive nets around $300 to $400, says Albright. In the past 10 years, the drives have collected nearly 488,000 pounds of recyclables, generating more than $6,850 in revenue.

Albright says the commission's focus and funds are to educate the public, particularly elementary school children, in how important a resource trees are to their hometown. Every Arbor Day - the last Friday in April - the commission plans activities and brings home the message to local third-graders.

"People feel very strongly about their trees," Albright said. "especially when those trees have grown alongside their homes as their families have grown."

No kidding. When the City of Kalispell planted hundreds of maples 20 feet apart on the boulevards in town in the early 1900s the plan was to thin them several years later to 40 feet apart, says Mike Baker, Kalispell's Parks and Recreation director. "But when the time came the people protested having them removed."

In the 1980s the city began a demonstration site, thinning some of those overcrowded trees whose growth had been stunted over the past 70 years.

"Now those trees have space to grow," says Baker, "and we have a healthier product as they reach their mature size.

The Parks Department plants about 100 trees each year, and the Street Tree Commission has the unique opportunity to educate and preserve the community's trees, young and old, for years to come.

You can designate that revenue from your recyclables at Pacific Recycling go to the Street Tree Commission.