Nothing Is Better than a Tree

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | May 31, 2025

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

So begins Joyce Kilmer’s classic ode to our leafy friends. He’d likely be displeased if he was still alive and lived around here these days; we’ve found plenty of reasons to remove plenty of trees from plenty of locations.

This lament should be prefaced with the acknowledgment that people are not marauding with chainsaw in hand, felling trees at random for no reason. In fact, every incident is full of logic and reason, but that doesn’t mean we all agree or make tree lovers in Tree City, USA, any happier.

This started a few years ago without much fanfare when city-owned Hickory Hills upgraded everything. Four new slopes, a new sledding hill, a significant “learning area,” widened Nordic trails, and a substantial expansion of the parking lot required the elimination of hundreds of trees.

It was not as if Hickory Hills wasn’t in need of some improvements, or lots of improvements. And those using the facility seemed to appreciate and enjoy the changes. The little ecosystems that previously existed in and around those trees presumably enjoyed the process less.

Our Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore national park was considering the removal of some 7,000 trees to extend the Heritage Trail until public outcry made them reevaluate the plans. The idea was to complete the trail in a way that made it universally accessible to all, but reaction to the proposed tree genocide has made the National Park Service reconsider the plan or at least try to find a less destructive route. Given the current federal administration’s proposed cuts to the national parks, it’s possible nothing at all will happen.

The Keith J. Charters State Park outside Traverse City is being remodeled and upgraded for the first time in years and will be closed after July 7 for ongoing construction of new cabins, a new park headquarters building, improved and widened park roads, and improved sanitation stations, among other updates. Unfortunately, this also involves the removal of 300 trees deemed dangerous or in the way of the improvements. The dense woodland setting, now being thinned, was one of the things that makes that state park so popular and so appealing.

The Cherry Capital Airport is the leader when it comes to tree removal. They’ve already clear-cut 1,600 trees from the western edge of the airport in the name of “runway protection zones,” fully exposing the mobile home community next door. Bigger planes, extended runway, more flights, fewer trees.

Now they are discussing removing all the tall trees from Oakwood Cemetery, our lovely park-like final resting place since it was donated by Perry Hannah and established in 1861. Designed as a “garden-style” cemetery, the airport would reduce it to a stump-and-shrub-style cemetery to create an ever expanding runway protection zone for their general aviation component which mostly uses the north-south runway.

The airport and its aviation board are mostly independent and have significant leeway for their seemingly endless desires for expansion; new gates, more flights, fewer trees. The real problem here is much of Traverse City and its trees are in the path of runway protection zones in almost every direction. While we certainly understand the value and economic engine the airport provides, we’re a little concerned that its continued expansion in its current location might well denude more of the area of its trees.

The benefits of trees are more than just shade and aesthetics. Trees reduce air pollution by removing carbon dioxide (which also helps mitigate climate change), carbon monoxide, ozone, and dust. They filter rain-borne pollutants and sediments. They reduce storm run-off, help prevent flooding and erosion, reduce the heat island effect, provide homes for a wide range of critters large and small, stabilize soil…there isn’t much that provides as much benefit to so many as a tree, and we humans haven’t yet created anything that even comes close.

To be fair, it’s not as if Michigan is going to run out of trees any time soon. According to MSU, Michigan has about 20 million acres of forest land containing between 11.5 and 14 billion trees covering about 53 percent of the state.

So, yes, sometimes progress or necessary developments require tree removal. Sometimes it’s for safety reasons, especially around fire danger sources like high voltage transmission wires. Saving trees is not always possible, but removing them cannot always be the only option, either. We’ve eliminated most of them from downtown in the name of development, and there are those who want greater and greater residential density, which requires removing even more trees.

Bigger is not always better, and more is not always an improvement. Nothing we create is better than a tree; it would be nice if our decision makers remembered that.