Birth of a city Broomfield 1950s film

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

It’s a good observation. I have noticed it too for a long time, when comparing old pictures of Denver to current pictures. Denver has a lot less trees today then it had in the 1950s.

Two reasons I can think of. 1. Storms destroy a lot of trees. The property owners remove whats left of the trees, and just don’t replace them. When I lived in Denver I saw it happen over and over. A tree falls down in someone's yard and it’s gone. Rarely did I ever see the homeowner plant another one to replace it. 2. Infill. When you tear down a nice old house with lots of trees around it, and replace it with a big box that stretches from property line to property line, thats a lot of greenery thats gone.

Lack of bio diversity in the originally planted urban forest coupled with the Dutch Elm disease epidemic that decimated the city's elm trees.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Lack of bio diversity in the originally planted urban forest coupled with the Dutch Elm disease epidemic that decimated the city's elm trees.

That too, but people are still not planting trees, like they used to.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

That too, but people are still not planting trees, like they used to.

I don't agree with that statement at all.

Denver Digs is very active in replanting the urban forest.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

I don't agree with that statement at all.

Denver Digs is very active in replanting the urban forest.

I’m not talking about just one organization planting trees in the parks. Anyway even the Denver Parks don’t have any where near as many trees as they did 60 years ago.

I’m talking about property owners replacing trees when they die. Some do it, but not many. I’m talking about the city building parkways like they did in the first half of the 20th century. Today the city builds four or six lane arterials with these stupid little sidewalk trees. It’s just not the same thing.

Mayor Speer gave a 110,000 free trees to Denver residents. How many trees has Denver Digs planted? I bet it’s a fraction of that number.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

I’m not talking about just one organization planting trees in the parks. Anyway even the Denver Parks don’t have any where near as many trees as they did 60 years ago.

I’m talking about property owners replacing trees when they die. Some do it, but not many. I’m talking about the city building parkways like they did in the first half of the 20th century. Today the city builds four or six lane arterials with these stupid little sidewalk trees. It’s just not the same thing.

Mayor Speer gave a 110,000 free trees to Denver residents. How many trees has Denver Digs planted? I bet it’s a fraction of that number.

Actually they don't just do parks. They provide free street trees to individual homeowners and discounted trees for back yards.

They have distributed over 45,000 trees in Denver so far. Speer was faced with a city that had no trees. Denver Digs is maintaining.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Actually they don't just do parks. They provide free street trees to individual homeowners and discounted trees for back yards.

They have distributed over 45,000 trees in Denver so far. Speer was faced with a city that had no trees. Denver Digs is maintaining.

Well, there you go. Denver is planting half the trees it did 100 years ago, when Denver was one-third the size it is today. Good job for Denver Digs, but I don’t think it’s enough to sustain the tree population in Denver. Especially when you consider the toll disease and weather takes on the trees.

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by KaaBoom

Well, there you go. Denver is planting half the trees it did 100 years ago, when Denver was one-third the size it is today. Good job for Denver Digs, but I don’t think it’s enough to sustain the tree population in Denver. Especially when you consider the toll disease and weather takes on the trees.

Population is not the number you should be looking at, it's square miles of city that matter, which have remained mostly consistent with the exception of the DIA annexation. I see no data to back up your assertion that there are fewer trees now.

Denver Digs is a single program, not the entire breadth of urban forest additions.

Here's a good read if you would like a clearer picture of what's going on with trees in Denver:

https://www.denvergov.org/Portals/74...try/Denver.pdf

From 2006 to 2013, 250,000 trees were planted in Denver. The city has 2.2 million trees.

Edit: Denver is also rated by American Forests as one of the Top 10 cities in the US among its 50 largest cities for urban forests:
https://www.americanforests.org/our-...urban-forests/

[wong21fr]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Lack of bio diversity in the originally planted urban forest coupled with the Dutch Elm disease epidemic that decimated the city's elm trees.

This. Add in the number of severe droughts and increasing temperatures since 2000 and the Denver metro tree canopy has been severely damaged. If we see a run of weather similar to 1950 to 2000 where you had a mere 11 dry years during that period that's coupled with a intensive planting campaign you'll see a stronger canopy in Denver. I believe that Denver is seeking to increase its urban tree canopy by 50% or so.

Can't say the same for places like Parker and Aurora where a lot of the growth is occurring further out in drier sub-ecosystems. They have quite the challenge in establishing a decent canopy.

[KaaBoom]

Originally Posted by SkyDog77

Population is not the number you should be looking at, it's square miles of city that matter, which have remained mostly consistent with the exception of the DIA annexation. I see no data to back up your assertion that there are fewer trees now.

Denver Digs is a single program, not the entire breadth of urban forest additions.

Here's a good read if you would like a clearer picture of what's going on with trees in Denver:

https://www.denvergov.org/Portals/74...try/Denver.pdf

From 2006 to 2013, 250,000 trees were planted in Denver. The city has 2.2 million trees.

Edit: Denver is also rated by American Forests as one of the Top 10 cities in the US among its 50 largest cities for urban forests:
https://www.americanforests.org/our-...urban-forests/

Denver doubled in square miles from 1941 to 1974. So I’m pretty sure that Denver has tripled in square miles since Mayor Speer was mayor.

I wasn’t the first one in this thread to note that Denver looked greener in that 1950s video.

Anyway I’m happy to hear that Denver is planting that many trees.