Frankfort Trees--Second Essay

All learning begins with specifics. But the specifics are, at first, so difficult to master and appropriate into our store of knowledge that many people never make much progress beyond one or two specific facts. In addition, we don't really hold each other to the requirement of much knowledge, and so no one really demonstrates it. Chidlren and college students can be forgiven if they think that accurate knowledge isn't important. Professors don't even know dates of birth and death of leading philosophers or writers they are studying. How can we truly expect students to want to learn anything if the professors themselves often cannot pinpoint specific and useful pieces of information about the subject they are studying?

But learning facts is hard. So, let's begin--by looking at the trees of Frankfort. We learned that the 2887 urban trees now under city management are of 86 species. The city considers that it has enough species; it just needs 5X more trees, and it has room for them, in the city spaces. Of the 86 varieties, 11 of them comprise 66% of the trees under city management. That means that 11 species constitute about 1850 trees. The first thing that a learner should do, after learning these facts, is to want to learn these 11 species. The point is clear: since learning is so difficult and foreign to the way that most people are constituted, one should begin with the easiest possible forms of knowledge.

So, here are the 11 species, with their Latin names and number of exemplars on Frankfort city streets or parks. All things don't need to be memorized, but you should know these 11 species. If you then wanted to begin to build knowledge, and you were "trapped" in Frankfort, you could simply walk along the streets and parks, and eventually, without too much difficulty, these 11 trees would become clear to you.

1. Acer saccharum; Sugar Maple 318
2. Celtis occidentalis; Hackberry 317
3. Acer saccharinum; Silver Maple 248
4. Quercus palustris; Pin Oak 188
5. Pinus strobus; Eastern White Pine 141
6. Fraxinus pennsylvanica; Green Ash 139
7. Robinia pseudoacacia; Black Locust 132
8. Pyrus calleryana; Callery Pear 121
9. Acer rubrum; Red Maple 99
10. Ulmus rubra; Slippery Elm 96
11. Juniperus virginiana; Easter Red Cedar 92

A few comments on this list are appropriate. As mentioned, they constitute 66% of the trees under the city's control. All of them are natives except the callery pear, an Asian tree. By learning their numbers, you now can ask important policy questions. Are these the type of trees that one wants for the future of Frankfort? How does each "live"? In connection with what other types of trees do these thrive? What kind of "canopy" does each of these trees provide? How much does one cost? How much care does each require? Should one try to phase out the Callery pears and only move to native trees? The advantage of that movement is that native plants and trees require less care; they just "naturally" grow there. But, my first point shouldn't be lost. By listing details, and by taking the time to learn all 11 species, we are, all of a sudden, able to raise a whole range of important policy questions which would have been closed to us without the knowledge.

One other point is interesting to me. While nothing was said in the report about the historical attitude of the city towards tree planting and management, it appears that we are about 70% of the way "there" just with what our precedessors did. That is, the predecessors probably planted about the right number of species, though not the right number of trees. They may have put too many maples around the city, and another variety might be more useful, but in general the city is working with a good basic stock of trees.

Then the Fun Begins

Before even moving to the other 75 varieties, the one who really wants to learn will then master the features of each of these 11 species in order to be able to identify them. These trees are, with the exception of two or three of the species, so prevalent throughout the United States, that you may be in any city spot in the country and find ample examples of each. The only two that aren't prevalent, in my experience, are the two "eastern" varieties--the Red Cedar and the White Pine. But there is a Western White Pine that looks similar to its Eastern neighbor. The corresponding "western" version of the Red Cedar is really a juniper (check out the species name of the "eastern" variety); I actually don't know why the eastern variety is called a "red cedar." Our "Western Red Cedar" is a Thuja and not a Juniperus. Well, that is a kind of arcance question that will have to be answered as we dig more deeply into knowledge. But the point is that there really is no reason why a person can't learn these 11 basic species of trees. You study and learn them; you identify trees, and you begin to remove some of the baffling confusion of the world as it confronts you. You begin to have knowledge, true knowledge, of the world. You begin to grow in confidence as you relate to people in a number of areas because, even if the world collapses or threatens to collapse all around you, at least you know 11 species of trees! This isn't nothing, friends. It is good, solid and productive knowledge. Some day, indeed, it might even lead you to deeper knowledge, not only of trees, but of relationships and connections which you cannot even anticipate today.

What I do, then, with these 11 species of trees, is to check them out on the Internet, find exemplars of them in my community (there is always someone to help you; you can even ask a guy who works on trees, and he will not only tell you which tree a silver maple is, but he will likely identify a lot more trees for you--for free), and then keep visiting them on my daily walks until I know and can spot them anywhere. It takes a while at first, but after a while, you begin to recognize these trees as if they are old friends.

Once you have learned the 11, you are ready for the other 75 varieties. The next essay is devoted to that subject.

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