Pictured: David Gunn. All photos by Ursula Ruhl, WKT.
by Don Corrigan
In anticipation of the nationally-designated tree holiday of April 26, the city of Webster Groves set aside Wednesday, April 17, for its formal Arbor Day Ceremony and Awards Celebration.
Prior to its official celebration on the evening of April 17, citizen volunteers and city team members planted 200 trees to honor Arbor Day. At 5 p.m., that day an awards ceremony commenced at Southwest Park Pavilion.
Tree Steward Lynnda Greene was posthumously granted a Tree of Distinction Award. Greene was a Master Gardener, and a member of the International Dark-Sky Association. She was praised for her love of nature, animals and the environment.
Greene was a member of the Webster Groves Garden Club and founding member of Webster Groves Greenkeepers. She assisted the city’s Greenspace Commission and one of her passions before her death in May 2023 was promoting the NO-MOW green movement to benefit pollinators.
The honor for Greene was followed with a tree tour given by David Gunn. An arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, Gunn’s talents were enlisted by the city’s “Eco-Ed” program series.
Arborist’s Tree Walk
On the tree walk, Gunn pointed out some of the city’s most interesting trees in Southwest Park. He also spoke to the hikers on the basics of tree anatomy, soil structure, tree identification and his favorite park trees .
“I like the black locusts that reach down and touch the ground with their trunks,” said Gunn. “I love when we can see trees that are allowed to do their own thing, instead of always being managed to be neat and tiny.
“There’s also a great hackberry that I love,” noted Gunn. “What parks can do – that residences can’t do – is let trees age and fall apart a little bit. Let the woodpeckers and the raccoons add some character as well.”
Gunn answered questions and pointed out some other oddities along the one-mile walk. He commented on the “flakiness of the bark” in river birch grove in Southwest Park.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how many came out for a tree walk,” added Gunn. “They not only had great questions about trees, but their own great observations on the ecology of trees and how they grow.”
One of the hiker’s observations that he enjoyed was about conservationist Aldo Leopold’s son, who said that trees are like rivers – they branch out and follow the path of least resistance.
“Trees are like that,” said Gunn. “They are more reactive, than proactive. They don’t sit down with a coffee and the paper and decide what to do. Their roots go in the direction of water; their branches tend toward where they can find the most sun.
“When trees become stressed, they are sometimes like humans.” Added Gunn. “When a tree is topped or hacked apart, the tree springs out wildly with a bunch of tiny branches. The trees end up structurally weaker than before they were topped.”
Arborist Gunn has worked in the horticultural industry for 16 years, nine of which were at the Missouri Botanical Garden. He now operates St. Louis Aesthetic Pruning, which specializes in tree and shrub care.
“I think it’s great that Webster and Kirkwood have Tree City USA designations,” said Gunn. “The residents deserve it. They care about their trees, and they really work to be good stewards of the environment.
The free tree hike was part of the “Eco-Ed” series of Webster Groves’ Sustainability Commission and its Green Space Advisory Commission.
Next free “Eco-Ed” programs will cover Missouri’s many environmental issues at 7 p.m., May 7, at the Webster Groves Public Library; and a talk on local pollinators at 7 p.m., also at the city library, on June 4.
Environmental Echo 