January 2023, part two- BUFRG leader, Dr. Burney Fischer’s Letter to the Editor in the Bloomington Herald-Times newspaper
As Bloomington grows, its urban forest shrinks
The recent removal of a nice row of maturing oak trees on Rogers Street highlights a continuing problem for the city of Bloomington. Economic growth, whether for expanded housing via multi-story apartment buildings, expanded roads and utilities, etc., means the removal of trees and less tree canopy remaining for Bloomington residents.
It seems inevitable that with economic prosperity the trees lose out, but this should not be the case. Yes, I know Bloomington is Indiana’s oldest Tree City USA, has a long-standing tree commission and other environmental/sustainability-oriented governance infrastructure that supports the urban forest, but we continue to lose canopy.
What we seem to need is a more forceful set of advocates for trees to fight harder to reduce tree loss. Just hoping that planting new trees will stop the loss is not enough, the canopy of young, small trees does not replace that of larger, older trees.
Burney Fischer, Bloomington
The letter is linked here, scroll down to read.
