The Fight for Urban Forests
November-December 2009
by Linda Underhill, from the book The Way of the Woods
 |
image by Steve Guttman
|
Bruce Kershner has made a career out of finding the most impressive trees in New York state. He’s found them in or near the places most people are least likely to look—our cities.
RELATED CONTENT
Estrogen Given to Pre-Teen Girls to Inhibit Growth April 29, 2002 Maria Opitz Estrogen Gi...
Ecologist Says Unchecked Population Growth Could Bring Misery Web Specials Archives American ...
A quick guide to salvaging or recycling windows, doors, roofing, and more.......
The question people everywhere are asking themselves is: How on earth are we going to survive?...
The cofounder of the Western New York Old Growth Forest Survey and vice president of the New York Old Growth Forest Association, Kershner has found ancient oaks in a grove behind a school in North Syracuse, a 400-year-old tulip tree in Queens, and trees he calls “living skyscrapers” in the 25 acres of old-growth forest at Inwood Hill Park on the northern tip of Manhattan Island.
One of the reasons for so much old growth in urban areas is that wealthy families such as the Rockefellers, who held land like Inwood Hill privately, didn’t need the income from logging and could afford to appreciate the forest’s scenic value. Then they deeded the properties to the public for parks. Left alone for centuries, the trees in these forests all over New York state have grown to what Kershner calls “mega flora.” He says they are “the huggable trees,” with trunks so large your arms can’t reach around them—but that shouldn’t stop you from trying.
Kershner is on a campaign to end what he calls “institutional denial” of the old-growth status of urban forests, many of which are endangered, and he has fought developers, land owners, and even the state Department of Conservation to prove that such places exist and that they deserve protection.
As part of his campaign for public awareness of old-growth forests, Kershner has written nine guidebooks. His most recent, The Sierra Club Guide to the Ancient Forests of the Northeast, gives detailed instructions for reaching each of these properties, instructions sometimes resembling those for an urban walking tour. “Take the A train to 207th street station,” he writes. “Walk west two blocks. Turn right on Seaman Avenue, go four blocks to its end, and turn left on 218th Street. Enter the park here.”