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National Tree or National Treasure?

© Wesley Ford

You may already have heard that the National Arbor Day Foundation (NADF)has been sponsoring a poll to select a national tree for the United states. Now I will be one of the first to stand up and say that the NADF is a great organization. Since its founding in 1972 this tree hugging organization has worked tirelessly to promote the cause of tree planting and to bring order to chaos of Arbor Day. In a little over a quarter of a century their accomplishments have been meritorius. They currently operate no less than 9 major on-going programs. All are recognized as outstanding in quality and having major impact on the reforestation of our urban/suburban environments.

It is with this in mind that I hesitantly question "why" must we have a National Tree? The NADF attempts to answer this question with:

"The United States is blessed with a wealth of tree species; two times as many as all of Europe. Yet while we have other national emblems, we have no national tree. With this voting process hosted by The National Arbor Day Foundation, Americans of all ages and all walks of life will help select a tree to take its place alongside the bald eagle, the 'Star Spangled Banner', and our country's other enduring national symbols.

"Trees have long represented strength, beauty, honor, and the triumphant struggle to survive. Trees have stood over the meeting places where great moments in our country's history were shaped. Now you can help shape history by participating in this vote for America's National Tree." (more available at Why are we voting:)

These are noble words indeed. But do they really answer the question, Why? Yes we have other national symbols, symbols that represent pretty much the entire country, or the entire country at the time they were chosen. But can we truely select one tree, or even one Genus of trees that can be truely representative of all 50 states...from the artic to the tropics? Certainly not from among those that have been put up for selection at the poll.

The leaders in this poll currently include dogwood, oak, pine, redwood and maple. All noble trees in their own right but are they National Trees? The flowering dogwood represents a lot of states their State Tree, but is not a native of the majority of the country. Hmmmm....and does the term dogwood include the Japanese Kousa Dogwood?

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