Jill Jonnes, "Urban Forests"

From Jefferson’s assessment of seeds as a “public treasure” to the first observance of Arbor Day in 1872 to the planting of a “survivor tree” on the site of the Oklahoma City Murrah building, trees have occupied the emotional and physical center of major U.S. events. In her incisive cultural history of trees in America, Jonnes, author of narrative histories including Eiffel’s Tower and Empires of Light, chronicles the long and heartbreaking battles against Dutch elm disease and other arboreal scourges, but also chronicles the nationwide surge of re-greening movements—including D.C.’s Casey Trees. Today trees are seen as hard-working urban citizens, cooling streets and buildings, helping to control rainwater runoff, and sequestering carbon. They also affect a neighborhood’s commerce, crime rate, property values, and general well-being, and Jonnes traces the increasingly sophisticated science of urban forestry.

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