Loss Of Maple Brings Dean Fund To Mind

I feel as if I'd lost an oíd friend, almost. Certainly a vital part of my home. When we moved into our house a dozen years ago, there were five trees in the extensión in front of our house and the one next door- a sugar maple, then three elms, and a Norway maple. The house faces southwest, but the trees shaded the . front, and kept it cool and nice. Then, a few years ago, the farthest elm died, a victim of the Dutch elm disease. The next two years the other elms succumbed, one after the other. Planted too close together, the disease spread through the roots, and there was no way to control it. When the last one died, and was removed, the sugar maple stood alone in front of our house, but because the trees had been planted close together, one side of the maple, blocked by the elm, had few branches and leaves to protect it from the western sun. A couple of years later, the maple begamto sicken. The leaves came out, each year. early, and fewer and fewer leaves came ouut, each year. This year a very sparse erop appeared, and by mid-July, in spite of watering, those few shrivelled and dried. Whether the tree succumbed from exposure and lack of protection, or whether it was a combination of different things, I do not know. I suspect it was the latter. Maples- especially sugar maples- throughout Ann Arbor have been afflicted for the last several years with what is called "maple decline", for want of a better and more specific name. Harrison Morton, professor of tree pathology at the UM, first called my attention several years ago. "When I came down here from Minnesota," he said, "I was shocked at I the condition of the maples in Ann Arbor." Morton, and others, have not been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the "decline", and suspect it may be itself a combination of many things, perhaps including slat used on ;;streets and sidewalks, exhaust 'fumes, root cramping and disturbance, and a host of other unknown factors. Coupled witli the severs drought of this year, though, the maples throughout town are in serious trouble. Curious about the history of my fallen maple, I took a section of the butt end to the backyard, sanded it down, and ran a quick check of the rings. Close as I could come (counting rings is not as simple a job as it might seem), the tree was planted sometime between 1915 and 1919, which would make it more than a half century old. It was solid as a rock, with no trace of rot. (There were several interesting questions that arose from this cursory examination, and I hope to follow it up at a later time after I check into a few things, sued as weather records, old plat books, etc.) Our street is a short one, just two blocks long, but in the dozen years we've beeu there, more than two dozen trees - mostly elms - have been removed. And, granted that many of them were put too close together in the first place, replanting of new trees has been minimal, and slcw to happen. The two new trees planted near my house, one to replace one of the elms, and another across the street, are locust trees, and in the two years since they were planted, have lost their leaves early because of a mite infestation. Spindly to begin with, this has set them back. . I don't mean to imply any kind of criticism to the Parks Department of the city of Ann Arbor, or to the Forestry División. They are as competent, and dedicated, and helpful as they could be. They could not have saved the elms, or even the maple, and the trees they have planted has been as large, and in as good condition, as any other street tree planted within the city or in new subdivisions. The fault for this situation, which affects every homeowner in the city of Ann Arbor, must go to the city administration and to City Council, for if any city in this country is more noted for its trees than Ann Arbor, and if any city has had the opportunity to care for them as well as Ann Arbor, I have not heard about it. In April of 1964, Miss Elizabeth Dean died, leaving the city of Ann Arbor almost two million dollars. The interest from that sum was to go for "the perpetual care, maintenance, replacement and planting of trees on city-owned property." In a discussion on Council floor in June of that year, Councilman Bent Neilsen told his fellow councilman that the money from the Dean Fund should be used for projects "above and beyond what is allotted annually for tree care," and City Administrator Guy C. Larcom assured council the money would not be used to divert funds now being used for this purpose. Those fine intentions have been disregarded, and the money has been diverted and misappropriated from time to time. This year, apparently, it has just been thrown into the pot to save the city from appropriating their fair share of funds for tree care. Regardless of the financial pinch we are now in, the existence of the Dean Fund is no excuse to refuse to make norm a 1 appropriations they would have made had there been no Dean Fund. As far as I am concerned, it is a shameful situation, and Miss Dean must be spinning in her grave at the way her intentions have been dishonored. She saw clearly that the money appropriated by the city for tree care was not sufficient, and she wanted to add something above and beyond those funds. But the city is now using her money in place of, not in addition to, the money' they would normally have spent for tree care. The interest on the Dean Fund amounts to about $80,000 per year. Last year's budget for shade tree work in the city was $291,000, and an additional $43,758 for special tree care. This year's budget allots $266,737 for shade trees, and absolutely zero for special tree care. There is no normal maintenance program for shade trees in the city. There is no [planned treatment of minor diseases. Even trimming, which should be done on a four to five year cycle, at the very least (a three to four year cycle would be most desirable), is now on a 10-12 year cycle. This means that instead of trimming only those branches which hang over sidewalks and streets at the present time, tree crews have to trim severely, and cut those branches which might be expected to grow over streets and sidewalks in the next decade. It also means that diseased and rotted branches do not get trimmed as they appear, and there is danger of fallen limbs and further spread of disease. I've been on this soapbox before, and it has had little effect, but I guess I will keep atit. I think it is not only an insult to the memory of Miss Dean, but also a warning to other people who might think of leaving their money to the city for special projects of their own choosing. The way the Dean Fund has been handled doesn't exactly inspire confidence that similar bequests will be used in the way they are intended, I and without a good exeeutor to carry out specific wishes, I imagine anyone who knows the situation would be hesitant to sign over anything. It is a sha me, and it could result in a real loss to the city some day. Beside what they've already lost in trees. _-