LaVista Park Deforestation

As of the end of August 2015, LaVista Park has lost over 140 trees since the beginning of the year.  That’s almost 5 trees per week, or almost 1 tree per day, on average.  Last year, LaVista Park lost more than 170 trees, or about 1 tree every 2^nd day.  As you can see, the rate at which trees are being cut down in our neighborhood has accelerated by 50%.

And, I’m only counting the trees which I, myself, have seen cut down, and that is in the areas I can reach by walking, which is only all the streets between LaVista Road and Citadel, and the little part of Sheridan from Cheshirebridge to Beech Haven.

This rate of tree loss is faster than the deforestation of the Brazilian Rain Forest! (On a per acre percentage basis.)  At this rate, all the large trees in LaVista Park will be gone within 7 to 10 years.  In the same time period of 2 years, fewer than 25 trees have been planted.

I hope you can help us reverse this process by sending this e-mail to all your LaVista Park neighbors.

What can we do?

1.                   Don’t cut down trees.

–         If a tree’s branches are threatening our home, we can have those branches trimmed back.

–         If a tree is dying, it is even more important not to cut it down.   Dying and dead trees provide habitat for all kinds of birds and other local wildlife (live trees much less).

–         If a tree is dying or dead, remove only the limbs which may threaten our property.  The crown can be removed, too.

2.                   No need to spend money.  There are plenty of all kinds of saplings growing in our yards.  Pick one/s which we like and either allow them to develop into full-grown trees where they are, or transplant them to where we want them.

3.                   Plant a shade garden under our trees.  Here are some resources:

–         The Natural Shade Garden by Ken Druse; Clarkson N. Potter, publisher

–         Mr. Druse has published a number of other books about gardening in the shade

–         There are a number of “shade gardening,” or “gardening in the shade” magazines

–         Pike’s Nurseries has booklets and expertise on shade gardens

–         Trees Atlanta

–         The DeKalb County Extension Office is also a great resource

–         The Georgia Botanical Garden at the University of Georgia in Athens has more resources – what a nice trip to enjoy the free gardens and the old town with its great college atmosphere

4.                   If all else fails, buy and plant some trees – large native hardwoods.  Plant 2 trees for every one which we have removed.

In order to counteract the deforestation of the LaVista Park neighborhood, I have put together a free shade tree and shade plant exchange.  Anyone willing to plant a shade tree sapling in their LaVista Park yard may take (a) sapling/s of any trees currently available at the exchange.  If they need help planting the sapling, they just need to let us know.  The same for shade-tolerant landscaping plants.

            If anyone wishes to donate a shade tree sapling or a shade tolerant landscaping plant to the exchange, again they just need to let us know (also if they need to have it removed from their yard.)

 The exchange website is:   www.LavistaParkShade.org

LaVista Park:

August 21 2015 – 3 trees cut

August 20 2015 – 7 trees cut

August 18 2015 – 2 trees cut

August 12 2015 – 2 trees cut

August 8 2015 – 4 trees cut

July 27 2015 – 4 trees cut

July 20 2015 – 3 trees cut

July 8 2015 – 5 trees cut

July 6 2015 – 9 trees cut

June 18 2015 – 7 trees cut

week of June 8 2015 – 6 trees cut

week of June 1 2015 – 5 trees cut

week of May 25 2015 – 6 trees cut

week of May 18 2015 – 3 trees cut

week of May 11 2015 – 3 trees cut

week of May 4 2015 – 4 trees cut

Etc.

2015 – To-date nearly 1 tree per day is gone

2014 – Over 170 trees cut down – that’s 1 tree gone every 2 days