Here’s an adage about trees in the form of a riddle:

When’s the best time to plant a tree?

Answer: Twenty years ago.

When’s the second best time to plant a tree?

Answer: Now.

The same set of answers could apply to the question, when should a community set up a program to manage its trees?

So says Misty Booth, the Starkville-based Urban and Community Forestry coordinator for the Mississippi Forestry Commission (MFC).

Trees are part of a city’s infrastructure and as such need management, says Booth.

The Columbus of my childhood radiated from a Main Street lined with lovely turn-of-the-century homes shaded by tall, graceful oaks and elms. The homes have disappeared, making way for banks, convenience stores and commercial buildings, while many of the trees, on Main and elsewhere, have been lost to time and indifference.

Columbus has a tree board, but it hasn’t met in years. Judging from the way they are pruned or the readiness in which they are taken down, the prevailing attitude here appears to be, trees are a nuisance to be tolerated.

Meanwhile, other Mississippi cities have recognized trees as a vital part of their urban infrastructure and have taken measures to responsibly manage these assets.

Biloxi, Gulfport and Hattiesburg have city arborists. Oxford, Tupelo and Laurel have tree management programs. Even tiny Walnut Grove, pop. 2,000, has an active tree program.

Twenty Mississippi towns have and maintain Tree City USA status. Columbus is not one of them.

What are the arguments for having trees in the urban landscape?

Trees help remove standing waste water, Booth said. They clean the air. They enhance property values. Shoppers are more likely to shop at businesses with parking shaded by trees. They save energy, buffering streets and homes from the summer sun.

The social benefits are many. Trees give a sense of place. Research has shown there is less crime, higher test scores and better health and healing where trees are present. Trees reduce noise. The list goes on.

“In Ocean Springs the live oaks contribute to their tourism,” she said. “Ocean Springs would not be the same place without the live oaks.”

About the multitude of benefits trees bring to a community, Booth said, “people know it, but they just don’t know they know it.”

The MFC offers guidance and grants to communities seeking to develop and maintain their green infrastructure.

Cowan Hunter has served for 20 years on the Oxford Tree Board.

“Here in north Mississippi, in places like Oxford and Columbus, trees are part of the backdrop and you kind of take them for granted,” said Hunter.

Oxford’s rapid growth came with a cost. People started noticing trees disappearing, said Hunter. “It got people thinking about how this growth is impacting the community.”

The challenge, said Hunter, was finding a compromise, managing growth while preserving trees.

In the beginning public officials didn’t take the tree board seriously, Hunter said. Perseverance and diplomacy changed attitudes

“We’ve found our voice and found our way,” said Hunter. “We’ve reached out to the community and have done things you can see.”

A reporter covering Oxford’s Tree Board complained to the board that the developer of her subdivision cut down all the trees. The board applied for and received a grant that provided trees for the reporter’s neighborhood.

The board conducted a tree planting workshop for the residents of the subdivision, who received trees.

One of the tools municipalities use to manage their urban forest is a tree inventory, which produces a map of the canopy created by existing trees.

You often see more affluent neighborhoods have more canopy, says Booth. A tree program would be one way to begin addressing these inequities.

There’s no better time than now for Columbus to take an informed and deliberate approach to the management and development of its green infrastructure. It’s high time we join the community of other Mississippi towns who recognize the value of trees.

It’s an investment in the future that will pay rich dividends in so many ways.

Birney Imes ([email protected]) is the former publisher of The Dispatch.

Birney Imes III is the immediate past publisher of The Dispatch.