Public awareness award for Elm Watch founder Tom Zetterstrom

NORTH CANAAN — The annual Arbor Day/Earth Day celebration will be held at North Canaan Elementary School (NCES) Friday, April 29. It promises to be as moving as ever, with the entire school gathering outside to welcome a new tree to the arboretum that has been created there.It will hardly be the same without the man who started it 21 years ago: former NCES student Tom Zetterstrom. But he could not have a better reason for not attending. On April 30, he will be in Nebraska to receive the 2011 Public Awareness of Trees Award from the Arbor Day Foundation.It is a prestigious award, according to the Arbor Day Foundation, being given “for bringing attention to the importance of planting and preserving one of America’s iconic trees, the American elm, and for introducing audiences to numerous tree species though his expansive ‘Portraits of American Trees’ fine arts photographic exhibition.”He joins the ranks of past Arbor Day Foundation winners that include Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, veteran newsman Bill Kurtis, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and The Walt Disney Company. Last year, the Public Awareness of Trees Award went to the mayor of Denver, who is now the governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.Zetterstrom is often known around North Canaan, in the town where he has always lived and volunteered, as “the tree guy.” It’s a compliment, but most have no idea of how much he has done to earn that nickname. There is a diversity in his efforts that comes from his passion to address everything about trees, from preserving their place in history in his photographs, to protecting their future through preservation efforts and the planting of disease-resistant cultivars and urban forests that mix many species.He is a founder of Elm Watch, which has planted disease-resistant elms in about 25 towns and preserved many of the few precious elms left in this region. Elm Watch is assisting a growing number of towns in forming tree committees, and is working with public and private schools on campus projects.Under his guidance, the Housatonic Valley Regional High School agricultural education department is growing the elms so they can be planted around the region.A tour of treesZetterstrom spoke with The Lakeville Journal last week while on the road in Ohio. He is expanding the trip to the award ceremony in Nebraska City to include stops at arboretums, botanical gardens and research facilities on his wish list of places to see, so he can expand his knowledge and understanding.While at the Arbor Day Foundation, he will get to see the collection of elm cultivars he helped design.“They have Asian elms there, too,” he said. “It’s a remarkable way for landscapers and arborists to see how trees perform in the landscape and with other trees, and to learn about things like branch structure.”On the way back, he will detour to Washington, D.C., where the nonprofit Casey Trees has been on a mission for a decade to restore and preserve the city’s tree canopy. “They’ve planted tens of thousands of trees in D.C., including about 1,800 elms and including 88 elms in front of the White House.”Zetterstrom plans to get a close look at the White House elms and at others planted on the National Mall.In search of the lost elmsHis determination to protect the species was shaped when, as a child, he watched his father cut down elms afflicted with Dutch elm disease, trees that had once formed a tunnel over North Canaan’s downtown streets. Half a century later, those streets are being subtly transformed. Zetterstrom volunteers on the town’s Streetscape Committee, and helps the town consider carefully how a variety of trees will enhance the town center in different ways. The Arbor Day Foundation’s motto is, “The right tree in the right place,” a practice Zetterstrom took up long before it became common practice. He is, for instance working with the town of Great Barrington on plantings.“There, the right place has to do with the architecture,” he said. “There are some buildings you want to hide, but others where you want to let the beautiful architecture shine. The new approach to urban landscape design requires getting over uniformity.”It is no coincidence that stately elms are often found along roadsides. Zetterstrom believes they are the perfect street tree. Their roots run deep and wide. They are unfazed by road pollutants and their high crowns do not compete with utility lines.While Dutch elm disease is no longer a significant problem for the elms, many other natural and man-made threats still endanger elms and other tree types.“Humankind has played a very interruptive role on the forest,” Zetterstrom said. “It’s sad to see the various battles they have to fight. Nature had sort of figured itself out since the glaciers. Species that were forced to live together figured out how to thrive. The first forest in North America had a large variety of species.“With globalization, pests and diseases are now carried to places where native trees cannot defend against them. In Massachusetts, Asian longhorn beetles are threatening maples to the point of destroying the maple syrup industry there.”He seems perplexed when asked if the Arbor Day Foundation award feels like a culmination of his life’s work. It was actually a silly question. Recognition has never been his motivation. And his care of the trees is a life’s work. There is no resting on one’s laurels or calling the job done.Urban forestsWhat happens in North Canaan and nearby is just as important as what happens on a national scale. Zetterstrom will often show up at local planning meetings to discuss issues with plantings or the viewshed. His input is always respected. His most remarkable work is perhaps in the small success stories. When the Stop & Shop Plaza in North Canaan was being totally renovated about five years ago, he convinced the developer to greatly improve the standard planting plan it was going to follow. A selection of unexpected trees, including elms, was added. Root boxes for parking lot island trees were made larger to allow for species that would grow tall and provide shade.In the new North Canaan municipal parking lot, landscaping is all purpose-driven. For instance, curbing is left out or designed to allow storm water runoff from paved surfaces to be absorbed by the many trees planted there. It keeps excess water out of the adjacent brook and the town sewer system. An urban forest is growing there.“We’re kind of swimming upstream toward the future forests of the world. Science is grappling with the big questions of nature and community trees and the kinds we’d like to promote. It’s a fairly dynamic science in terms of the research going on these days. “It’s also about raising the collective consciousness and thinking more deeply about trees, instead of seeing how many we can plant.”