Greek philosopher Heraclites wrote that you can never stand in the same river twice. Change is a universal constant, and that is powerfully evident to those of us who work by the river daily. Even a casual observer driving over the city’s river bridges can see evidence that our river corridors are playing a key role in Columbia’s renaissance.

The City of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation manages Riverfront and Granby Parks, part of the larger Three Rivers Greenway. In her upcoming conference presentation, Park Ranger Coordinator Karen Kustafik will visit the history of land use in our river corridor and the resulting shift in values and perceptions of those areas.

For pre-Colonial cultures, the Congaree, Saluda and Broad Rivers were avenues of travel and commerce, brimming with sustaining populations of shad and sturgeon. When colonists followed river pathways upstream from the coast, they stopped at the fall line, where rocky shoals impeded upstream navigation. Saxe Gotha, Granby, and later Columbia grew into centers of commerce. By the 1820s, Robert Mills and Abraham Blanding constructed canals to enable navigation around our city’s rock strewn confluence. The remains of those canals are tucked into the parks we manage today, a testimony to a time when as many as 20 barges a day journeyed between Columbia and Charleston. Karen’s presentation will highlight present day benefits derived from our river corridors, and discuss some of the challenges we face as greenway managers.

We encourage you to join Karen after her program for a short walking tour. Wear your boots for a stroll past the historic Columbia Hydro onto a riverside trail under the impressive canopy of our riparian forest. It is outdoors that the story tells itself; one simply has to make time to listen.

I was speaking with an experienced municipal arborist one day and asked him if his city had a young tree pruning program. He replied, “Of course” and then he elaborated with this analogy. “Would you wait until your child was a teenager to teach him right from wrong? Of course not, and I apply the same thinking to young tree pruning.” With that unequivocal guidance in hand, I proceeded to develop a tree pruning program for the city of Columbia.

First, I turned to Ed Gilman’s An Illustrated Guide to Pruning, and as I anticipated, he provided clear instructions on young tree pruning as well as how to develop a long-term pruning cycle (appendix 6). This all sounded great, but now I had to come up with a plan for the city of Columbia. Fortunately, the reforestation technician before me had kept a record of all the trees planted during the 2004-2005 planting season. Armed with that information, I set out to mold the young trees on this list to grow into outstanding, healthy contributors to the city and to their community for many decades to come.

Gradually, I broke my pruning procedure down to four steps so I could give other employees clear, simple instructions on the proper techniques. These instructions only apply to shade tree species (oaks, tulip poplar, maples, elms) because they are the trees that have the potential to cause the worst damage as they reach a mature size (60 to 120 feet). Therefore, it is critical that you correctly identify the tree species prior to pruning the tree. (Understory species like cherries and dogwoods do not fall into this category. Please refer to Gilman’s book for guidance on pruning these species.)

First, I observe the tree I am about to prune in order to determine what lower branches to remove. Gilman recommends keeping two-thirds of the tree’s height as canopy, so I start by removing all lower branches that fall in the lower one-third. If the remaining branches would still obstruct a pedestrian on a sidewalk, I prune those as well.

Second, and most importantly, I select the central leader and subordinate or remove all competing leaders. The decision to subordinate or remove depends on the size of the competing leaders. The larger the stem, the more likely it is that I will subordinate it during this pruning. Then, in a couple of years, when the central leader has become apically dominant, I will return to the tree to remove the remaining subordinate stem.

Third, I follow Gilman’s recommendation (page 188) to select the lateral branches that are growing close together and remove some of them in order to create a system of spiraled, scaffold branches well-spaced apart. Any time multiple branches are growing close together on the trunk at this young age, at least one should be removed because of the stress on that part of the trunk will increase as the branches’ diameters increase in size.

Finally, of the remaining lower branches in the upper two-thirds of the tree, I reduce by approximately 1-2 feet as many as I can reach from the ground with the pole pruner, pruning back to a lateral branch. This technique slows the growth of lower branches that will eventually be removed in the next twenty years. This step accomplishes two things. First, it prevents lower branches from competing with the central leader. Second, when the branches are eventually removed later in the pruning cycle, the cuts will not be so large that the tree will have to expend a lot of its energy compartmentalizing the pruning wound. (Gilman, page 192)

After two years of young tree pruning, the city of Columbia has a pruning cycle established and about 1,000 trees pruned like I described above. I spent the first year honing my own technique, but since then have trained another employee whom I can send out on his own to mold these young trees properly as well.

Spending approximately 15 minutes pruning each of these young trees now will save thousands of dollars in tree maintenance for the city in the long run. Though it may be hard to justify to your employer shifting your limited labor resources to a new endeavor, an argument in terms of long-term cost savings should help convince your boss to make this important investment in your city’s trees.

“If it’s the psychic network, why do they have a phone number?” comedian Robin Williams once quipped. Williams’ seemingly inane comment has some merit. Maybe the psychics can telepathically talk with each other and a select few of the significantly more in-tuned but most of us need a venue or vehicle for our networking. There is none better than our annual conference on October 29  at the State Museum. Dionne Warwick won’t be there, but Dr. Kim Coder and a host of other experts will and they are certain to channel some vital tree information that we can put to use in our S.C. communities. There will also be 100 or so other people just like you with fertile brains ready for picking.

Another great meeting of the minds is our annual Carolina Arborist Workshop to be held in Columbia on September 17. Geared for the practicing arborist, this seminar will focus on the technical and safety aspects of arboriculture.

We don’t have to confine ourselves to just the more formal wave lengths of conferences and seminars however. Tagging along with colleagues or friends as they inspect a tree situation can be a great learning experience for all of you. Each person brings a unique set of experiences and knowledge. The wisdom of many can be greater than the wisdom of one.

It is important that we expand the consciousness of others. There is still a great deal of misinformation out there. Property owners and government agencies are making decisions that affect the community forest based upon emotionalism and half-truths. Public meetings and forums are bully pulpits for citing the science that should drive decisions. Urban forestry should be a blend of science and art and often well intentioned people focus more on the art than the science. Explaining the relationship can win converts to and advocates of good community forestry.

I am incredibly fortunate to work with a staff of urban foresters who regularly teach me something new (or, often, remind me of something I have forgotten). I, of course, network with them on a daily basis. I also get the opportunity to talk with police officers, fire fighters, sidewalk repair crews and engineers. I have found, through the years, that if I properly explain how a tree should be treated, they embrace that information and put it into practice.

Along with education and advocacy, networking is one of the ways we say that we will achieve our mission which is “To foster the stewardship of urban and community forests.”  I think that I have learned more about urban forestry by listening to and viewing others than I have pouring over technical texts. Make no mistake, the texts are important sources of information but they don’t offer the opportunity to ask questions, offer alternatives or just watch how it should be done.

Feel the vibe.  Make the call.  The lines are open.