Teacher’s Answer Key
Worksheet 1: Keywords
Woodlot
Sentence: The woodlot, as it was called then, was to be held in common-owned and maintained by all-to provide the raw material for heating, cooking, shingling, clapboarding, furnishing, fence-laying and road building and the habitat for game.
Definition: An area set aside for the purpose of growing trees.
Arbor Day
Sentence: J. Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day, said on the 30th anniversary of the day in 1902 "Arbor Day is now one of the recognized institutions of the country. Every spring it directs attention to the interest that attaches to trees and gives instruction respecting the kinds and their cultivation."
Definition: The day designated for nationwide tree planting.
Urban Blight
Sentence: "Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool," she wrote in her diary, "all the threads are interwoven, recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks-national, state and local." Lady Bird Johnson diary entry.
Definition: The wither and decay of a city.
Urban Forests
Sentence: Since then, research has proved statistically what many people feel intrinsically-cultivating and maintaining urban forests yields measurable aesthetic, economic and environmental benefits to Americans
Definition: Parcels of land that are preserved in a city for the benefit of the community.
Stewardship
Sentence: We find ourselves again, like the Plymouth pilgrims, practicing stewardship over a woodlot that is co-owned and co-maintained by the entire community where "(a)ny inhabitant of the Towne" has the liberty to take of the timber of urban and community forests. Taking not the limbs or the branches, but the pleasures and benefits bestowed upon us by the trees.
Definition: Being responsible for the long term care of something.
Worksheet 2: Essay Analysis
1. How long have Americans been preserving forests for the benefit of the community?
400 years
2. What was the challenge of the woodlot managers during the Colonial period?
To make sure that any timber cut was used by the household and not sold for profit. To settle disputes over bee trees.
3. What was the challenge of the street tree managers at the turn of the 20th century.
There was no money allocated for the maintenance of street trees.
4. What was the challenge of the urban tree managers during the period of urban blight and flight?
They had to contend with highways and new roads being built in urban woodlands and parks and had to deal with the neglect of city trees - a consequence of urban flight.
5. What are the challenges to contemporary urban foresters in our cities today?
The continued rise in population in American cities has led to pressure for the development of many urban woodlands and parks. Also, urban foresters face budget cuts that threaten their livelihood.
Test
1. Who were the first Americans to set aside forests for the benefit of the community?
The colonists.
2. When was the first legislation enacted to protect the urban forest?
1978
3. What economic benefits do urban forests provide people?
Reducing air conditioning costs, storm water run-off costs, air pollution costs, global warming costs.
4. What ecological benefits do urban forests provide people?
Increasing the number of functioning ecosystems is the only way to increase the manufacture of clean air, clean water and clean soil.
5. What aesthetic benefits do urban forests provide people?
Strengthening the imagination, lifting the spirits, soothing social problems.
6. Who is responsible for maintaining the health of the trees in the urban forest?
All of us.
