|TREES WITH FLAIR, (A FLARE)?| "I think that I will never see a
poem as lovely as a tree". Arboricultural music to everyone's
ears but rarely read in its entirety. No matter how many times I
have asked someone to read the poem during a program, someone
always ends up with a tear in his or her eye. Trees do that to
us, don't they? They are provocative, ethereal and evoke
feelings that are often difficult to express. (Don't worry, if
you have these fuzzy moments you are on the right track!) Trees
are our friends, and as the little redheaded kindergartener said
during an Arbor Day program, "Why Mr. Deahl, trees are important
because that's where the monkey's live"! How right she was, and
how critically important her statement is to the survivability
of each connected organism that exists within our urban forests.
"Trees with flair", you say? Yes, trees with a flare. Now which
one is correct? An ethereal discussion of trees is not my
intent, but instead, a tree's physical makeup and its biological
characteristics