All Read. Please.Forest Idea of Future.

I have an idea for the future of trees in the world.

I was at one of my friends house last night and were in his front yard, the front yard is basically a forest in the middle of the town, that his mom grew.it used to be all grass. in this neighbourhood my friend was telling me that alot of the nieghbours around were starting to do the same.after looking around i noticed he was right. when i got back to my house that night, basically all the neighbours are opposite. plain green lawns with maby a tree or 2.

that made me think everyone should do it too. if any of you ppl out there all over the world on this forum read this and actually take the time to plant tons of trees on your front yard, thank you. you ppl will influence hopfully more people in your neighbour hood and and eventually the town and so on. the world. jst like euopes cloths fashions, growing a forest on your lawn will be the same thing.

my dream is to have forests in front of every home in the world so to speak. this will create more homes for animals. help ppl to learn to respect nature.

im only 16 i live with my parents.go to high school. i suggested to my dad but i cant change his decision, though he loves it. im not sure why, we alrdy have a few huge trees and he doesnt want to cut them down to plant 100 more but what ever, thats what im goin to do when i get older and buy a house.

if i dont influence anybody by this post hopefully in a few years i will start when i buy my own home.

please if i have inspired anybody to actually do this please post it. or if u know of ppl that do the same and are alrdy starting a similar trend please tell me more thnx for reading.


[edit on 23-10-2005 by BirDMan_X]

Not sure about the front yard, but having some trees in the back would be pretty nice.

The only issue that people would have involves security, really, so nobody prowls in the area around your home. That's probably the thing. But yeah, I actually like the idea of having trees and just a nice woodsy area that doesn't need lawnmowing, etceteras. Easier in a rural area then a suburban one.

the thing is trees in your back yard...nobody sees them. and nobody will be influinced to do the same.my back yard is really envirnomental but nobody will ever see it cause its in our back yard.most ppl ausume ppls fronts are the same as the backs.my front only has 2 big maples. most houses in my nieghbourhood have a maple out front as well.

if we were to cut em down and plant tons of trees and grow them at the same time so they all get son and grow big. it will work. i imagine some nieghbours would follow us if they liked the idea.eventually lawns will feel like they are the differnet ppl in the world and they will end up growing a forest too.

personally im excited.i know this will work.

[edit on 23-10-2005 by BirDMan_X]

In a way this is already being done.

By definition, a forest is 10% tree cover (if you look straight down from an airplane you would see 10% of the area covered with tree canopy. There are also definitions of tree that exclude woody shrubs). Less than 10% cover it is not a forest.

According to aerial photographs and satellite imagery, the urban areas of the United States currently average 27% tree cover. The most 'forested' major city in the U.S. is Atlanta, GA. The Chicago Loop is 11% -- meaning if you could magically remove all the buildings and concrete the remaining trees would meet the definition of a forest. These are averages, and there certainly are urban areas that are treeless, but there many residential and less densely developed urban areas that are heavily tree covered.

Now, tree covered urban areas are not forest ecosystems and no one is claiming they are, but the urban areas of the U.S. have more trees than is popularly believed.

A few well placed trees in a yard reduce energy consumption for heating and cooling, and trees add several thousand dollars to the market value of a home.

thank you dave_54.

im talking atleast 20 trees per the average lawn.im hoping to get tons.its good to have one or 2 but the more the marier.

20 trees per average lawn?

What the heck is average where you live? Here in an urban area, there is no way I can properly space even 5 trees in my yard. It would be so overcrowded my kids could barely walk. I have two trees that I planted 10 years ago.
I would just be a little bit more realistic about what you ask people to do. That, and how many people own a property where they can change their landscape? What kind of complications would this have on our ecosystem? What would happen to the food chain?

i know, u wont have a lawn, u have a forest in your front lawn and so does everybody else.because u will influince ppl with the beauty of it.

u cut down ur existing trees so u can get more sunlight. plant a ton of tiny ones.side by side like and they all grow up at the same time.i have 3 maples. most ppl have around the same. i only thought of this idea last night.

the ecosystem would get better, more homes for animals, trees obsorb pollution, grass is not good for the ecosystem.

food chain?the food chain would be similar to one in the forest. picture ur neighbour hood with houses side by side.

each nieghbour has a forest, they will all connect ecept driveways and houses in between.but i have one side of my lawn connecting to another nieghbour's lawn. if we both planted 20++++ trees side by side 40 trees and it will kill out grass also.

this is all very much posible.

ps. dont spray your lawns.jst a thing i had to say.

[edit on 23-10-2005 by BirDMan_X]

That's great that you have the very nice and Disney-esque forest scenario played out in your mind, and it looks so good from your house to the end of the block.
But, if I may...
I don't have a driveway.
My neighbor touches my house.
I don't have a front lawn.
Most of the people in an actual city don't even have a back yard.
Homeowner's can plant, renters can not.
20 is simply an improbable number.

Just do me a favor. As the self-proclaimed 16 year old that you say you are, take Mommy's car (or your own, if you are so lucky) and drive to the nearest major city. Then tell me what kind of forest you see.
And please explain to me just what this means:

Originally by BirDMax_X
i know u dont have a lawn, u have a forest in your front lawn and so does everybody else.

ok im not rich, i dont have my own car.i know some ppl live in appartments, and some ppl dont have the luxury of owning you own land and im sorry if i offended you. but who ever has any room at all it would be amazing if we could all do it. some day in 10 years when i own my house i will come back to this forum if its still around i will show you pics because im doing it right in the middle of the city where i live even if all the other lawns around are still grass because nobody else likes it. my lawn will be a forest.if everyone did it ppl that still had lawns will feel left out and build a forest too.

"we all have the ability to change the world"

"i know you dont have a lawn, you have a forest."
i mean in the future you wont have a lawn, you will have a forest....

translation
"i know, you wont have a lawn, you will have a forest."

i am planning to use my whole lawn and basiacally kill all the grass while doing it. not leaving my self any lawn.

Yeah, let me plant more trees in my yard so when the next hurricane or tornado comes I will be crushed to death by these falling trees. Thanks but no thanks.

There are some new developments or neighborhoods that were bulldozed clear of all trees and only a few trees were planted afterwards. These neighborhoods could use a few more trees to help provide shade in the summer and help cool the city in the summer. If the trees lose their leaves in the fall, the sun can shine through to help heat the homes in the winter. Proper landscaping does add value to a homeowner's property and can save on heating and cooling bills.

However, you need to be realistic and know that some people only have enough room for one or two full grown trees in their front yard. You should plant trees with enough space to grow to maturity instead of how it looks when you plant them. Someone may want to live in a densely wooded forest where you can't see any buildings but I believe a lot of city dwellers prefer to be able to see where they are going when they drive around town.

There are a few people who prefer very low maintenance lawns with no leaves to rake but I believe the energy savings would pay for a lot of leaf raking. You also need to have enough space to plant trees and shrubs far enough away from houses or they will become a major fire hazard for your home and the city if there is too much. If you experience any wind from major storms, trees do fall on buildings as well. Some people plant trees too close to their house in my opinion.

Pine trees and a few others have an annoying habit of dropping sap, acorns, etc., while losing branches and you would not want a car that cost you a lot of money parked underneath it. Other than a few drawbacks, trees do add value to the city and homes. I believe southern cities have overdone the tree thing by planting so many Bradford Pear trees. In my opinion they look tacky when full grown and usually are not given enough space for a full grown tree when planted. The branches are weak and easily break in any strong wind and then you are left with half a tree or a deformed looking tree. Tree selection and spacing are important in my opinion. Overall I like well placed trees that don't block out road signs and provide shade in the summer.

Originally posted by Frosty
Yeah, let me plant more trees in my yard so when the next hurricane or tornado comes I will be crushed to death by these falling trees. Thanks but no thanks.

plant the trees infront of your house, they will act as a sheild against the hurricane if you plant enough. in saskatewan,manitoba(canada's plains) there is so much wind. the trees would definatly put resistance against the hurricanes and with enough of them they wont fall to often.

lol i guess nobody likes the idea enough to consider doing it .i guess ill do it myself.

what about other plant life, animals etc?

too many trees will strangle and block sun to other plants, create unnatural bug infestations, starve animals and then the fire risk...

forests arent meant for everywhere and will cause problems where dense forests were never naturally there, its no more healthy than having grass everywhere.

I love the idea of more trees and I'm very fortunate to live in a city that is full of trees. Every street is lined with large trees and some areas, turning onto a side street is like entering a tunnel of green.

Many of the homes in my neighborhood have very dense shrubs and trees on their lots. We also have a large park across the street that is fully forested and full of gardens. So at least in my city, we have a lot of green space.

I would like to see more people planting fruit trees in their yards for the simple fact that you get all the benefits of other species of trees, but you also get food that you can harvest. If enough people put in a few fruit trees each of different varieties you could trade with neighbors, friends and family as the different fruits ripened. At least for part of the year you wouldn't be eating fruit that had to be factory farmed and shipped across the country, burning up more fuel.

You beat me to it, AD. Fruit trees are ideal, they bloom and provide food. I'm losing another Blue Spruce to an endemic disease but maybe I can save my last one. My neighbor has an ancient apricot tree and several volunteers came up in my yard. I've tended them and small as they are, they produce. I started an apple seed but the fruit is terrible so I'm going to stick some seeds from some ancient tasty trees in the ground and hope to graft next spring or the year after.
Colorado Springs was laid out on a barren plain. People built it up and planted trees and now the city is full of stately trees. It is a shame when developments go up, they tear out all the trees, they could go around them.
Trees put down deep tap roots for water, much less water usage than a lush green lawn. And as you said, they cut energy use and here, they are a buffer against hard winter storms.

Originally posted by BirDMan_X

Originally posted by Frosty
Yeah, let me plant more trees in my yard so when the next hurricane or tornado comes I will be crushed to death by these falling trees. Thanks but no thanks.

plant the trees infront of your house, they will act as a sheild against the hurricane if you plant enough. in saskatewan,manitoba(canada's plains) there is so much wind. the trees would definatly put resistance against the hurricanes and with enough of them they wont fall to often.

lol i guess nobody likes the idea enough to consider doing it

.i guess ill do it myself.

I'm not sure if that is true, a few years ago a hurricaine came through and my neighbor had about a dozen trees knocked down. I had one fall on my shed. The neighborhood I live in is pretty heavilly wooded, moreso than most subdivisions that I have ever seen. There were trees down all over the place.

I've read somewhere that the U.S. is more heavily wooded now than it was 100 years ago. Not sure how true that is , but I do know that where I live 140 years ago there weren't many trees in the area after 100,000 union troops spent several months camped out during the civil war, it was quite bare.

Some considerations (taken from a MI perspective. We have a lot of oak-hickory forests around here) as well as river basin/floodplain and wetland areas as well).
Silver maple (Acer saccharinum) as well as Red Sunset subspecies of Red Maple (Acer rubrum) are really popular for landscaping. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) isn't a bad alternative if you live in an area with heavy ice. Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea) and Nannyberry (Verbinum lentago) are understory trees as well as sumacs just not the poison kind . These get maybe 14 ft tall at most and are not really large.
For some large trees my personal favorites are tuliptrees, sycamores (I hear they get really big and beautiful down south), Sassafrass are nice too.
Also to throw in one of my favorite shrubs Spicebush.

Trees to avoid for fire:

Anything with ladder fuels or that require a fire cycle to reproduce.
Jack pine i know for sure. Eucolyptis trees are very flamable. California planted a bunch of them a while back and it was roasting a lot of marshmellows as well as homes.

Some that are affected by disease.

Elms- Dutch elm disease-type of fungus i believe. Fortunately they live long enough to reproduce you just won't see very many get to become large trees.

Ash-emarld ash boar-invasive beetle

American Beech- The lovers tree- It has another invasive species that infects trees with exposed interlayers under the bark.

Some that are good for wild life-

Basswood. Lots of animals use the basswood for a variety of reasons. People used to use the stringy inter fibers for rope. The leaves are edible.

White Oak-acorns have a lot less tanins than most other oaks (at least in this part of the country). They don't taste too bad if you can stomach em.

I just did a bit of looking around at different cities and I see a lot of green. Some neighborhoods look like forest except for the roof tops. So from that I have to assume our cities are in pretty good shape as far as trees go.

I captured a shot of my street, and you can see it's covered in large trees.



From this picture, you sure don't see many lawns. And if you walk around the local streets, most people have small lawns with many trees and perennial borders consisting of shrubs, hosta etc... and seasonal bedding plants for colour.

Overall, I think cities do fairly good in staying green.

birdman, that sounds like a great idea. someday when i have my own property - i will have a little utopia of trees. all sorts, granted they can survive in my climate.

until then its a balcony and a cactus collection.

however, i hope to have a nice spacious area too. suburbanites will agree - a street full of trees, means a fall full of leaves. 2 or 3 trash bags i can handle, but 2-3 bags everyday for an entire season can be burdensome.

More trees are a good thing and many yards can make do with a few more IMHO. Trees around your house can even increase the energy efficiency of your house. A tree in full leaf can block 70 to 90 percent of solar radiation. So shade from those leaves means less energy to cool your house in the Summer.