Everybody loves trees, right? I mean everybody. It just makes so much sense. Trees are aesthetically pleasing. They provide shade and their respiration helps cool their surroundings. They reduce storm water runoff, filter air pollution and provide habitat for wildlife. Indeed, some writers suggest that humans are hard-wired for “biophilia,” a concept that encompasses the love of trees. As Adam Winston sums up that theory (which he does not entirely agree with):
Psycho-evolutionary theory is based on the notion that millions of years of evolution have left modern humans with a partly genetic predisposition to respond positively to nature and prefer landscapes that favor their own survival. …
Humans have evolved in a largely unmodified natural environment, with only a tiny fraction of our evolutionary history having been spent in artificially constructed urban environments. Because of this, it is suggested, our physical and mental well being is still highly dependent on contact with the natural environment, and this is why trees and forests in and around urban places can provide places that improve our mental and physical health.
There are many tree lovers in the Richmond region, and for the most part I count myself among them (although I do confess to a hatred of a particular tree in my back yard that spews gumballs by the thousands).
But the love of trees is not universal, as the Washington Post points out in an article about the travails of environmentalists trying to plant trees in less affluent sections of Washington, D.C. An article this morning quotes a certain Doris Gudger, who was less than gratified when a city crew started planting trees in front of her rowhouse in Southeast D.C. The pollen would aggravate her allergies, she said. Raking leaves would be a pain. Drug dealers would use the trees for shade. Gentrifiers were sure to follow, raising property values, and she would have to pay higher taxes.
Casey Trees, a D.C.-based organization that has provided guidance to the urban-canopy movement in Richmond, has learned that it does no good to plant trees if there is no community support for them. No one waters them, and they wither and die. Now the group plants trees only when a homeowner association or community group asks for health.
But even that can be an obstacle. People in lower-income neighborhoods often perceive young environmentalists as outsiders — the latest in a parade of do-gooders who parachute in, indulge their latest enthusiasm, and then depart. The same probably can be said of other causes peddled by the affluent, white ministering class in poor neighborhoods for such causes as urban gardening and wholesome foods (causes, incidentally, that I support).
Bottom line: The altruistically inclined should never assume that people they aim to help actually want that help. They may have very different priorities and may look at the world in very different ways. Outsiders must invest the time to network with the people whose lives they seek to better, build relationships of trust and gain their buy-in. Such foundation-building efforts will be richly rewarded.
— JAB
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