Andrea Curtis - A Forest in the City

Text copyright 2020 by Andrea Curtis

Illustrations copyright 2020 by Pierre Pratt

Published in Canada and the USA in 2020 by Groundwood Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777 .

Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press

groundwoodbooks.com

We gratefully acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Canada.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: A forest in the city / Andrea Curtis ; illustrated by Pierre Pratt.

Names: Curtis, Andrea, author. | Pratt, Pierre, illustrator.

Description: Series statement: ThinkCities

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190146540 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190146567 | ISBN 9781773061429 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781773061436 (EPUB) | ISBN 9781773063522 (Kindle)

Subjects: LCSH: Urban forestryJuvenile literature. | LCSH: Trees in citiesJuvenile literature. | LCSH: Urban ecology (Sociology)Juvenile literature. | LCSH: Forest ecologyJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC SB436 .C87 2020 | DDC j635.9/77dc23

The illustrations were created in gouache on paper.

Design by Michael Solomon

For my city neighbors, whose kindness runs as deep as the roots of our shared trees. AC

A FOREST

IN THE CITY

ANDREA CURTIS

ILLUSTRATED BY

PIERRE PRATT

Groundwood Books

House of Anansi Press

Toronto Berkeley

A Forest in the City

I magine a city draped in a blanket of green. A place where trees lean over sidewalks, lending shade to people and other creatures. Where the air is cool and clean, where the trundle of streetcars and the sound of honking horns are muffled by the leaves and branches.

Imagine a busy, humming city with a lush canopy of leaves making everyone down below feel safe, calm and connected to the earth.

Is this the city you know?

Our concrete jungles arent always easy places for trees to grow. The soil beneath sidewalks and roads can be hard packed and lacking in nutrients. There are times when trees cant get enough rainwater. The heat can be withering.

On some streets, skyscrapers are like the walls of a deep canyon, blocking out the natural sunlight that trees need to thrive. Meanwhile, artificial light from lampposts can disturb their natural rhythms, affecting the timing of leaf and blossom growth.

And yet these green giants are essential to our urban spaces. With pollution- and climate changefighting superpowers, trees help make life in cities more healthy and rich with possibility.

So how do we create a forest in the city? How do we build a place where people and trees can grow together in harmony? As more and more of us around the world move into urban centers, the answers to these questions are becoming urgent.

Trees have many stories to tell. They have helped shape the history and growth of cities around the world.

But before there were cities at all, the First Peoples carved homes from the forests and green spaces near the rivers, lakes, streams and oceans where they lived. They had a deep connection to the land and the trees.

As new people arrived, sometimes from far away, they cut down the trees and dug up the roots to make way for more homes and paths, then roads and buildings. They built houses and furniture and made tools. They burned the wood to cook their food and warm themselves.

Some trees continued to grow near the outskirts of these early cities or in woodlots that were accessible to everyone. A few were left near churches, temples, mosques or by the city walls where people gathered to celebrate or to sell goods on market day. Wealthy people cultivated trees in their private walled gardens.

It wasnt until about four hundred years ago that Western cities began planting trees that everyone could enjoy along a few main roads or parade routes. Even then, most places did not have a lot of trees or shrubs in their dense central cores.

Then, in the late 1700 s, industrialization began. Societies moved from an economy based on growing things on the land to one relying on manufacturing goods. Once factories that could mass-produce everything from clothing to farm implements moved into the cities, urban populations exploded.

These crowded places were often dirty and polluted. Public spaces such as New Yorks Central Park and Londons Victoria Park were created so that city dwellers could enjoy clean air and the healing power of trees and nature. Such parks were so well used that it soon became common for cities to plan for and plant trees in parks and along streets.

Shortly after the First World War ( 1914-1918 ), a deadly fungus spread by the elm bark beetle began killing many of the majestic elm trees arching over streets and sidewalks in Britain and Europe.

Within twenty years, Dutch elm disease had traveled to Asia and North America, killing hundreds of thousands of trees over several decades. The disease devastated many places, leaving them looking barren and, in some cases, struggling with air- and water-quality issues.

It wasnt until the trees were gone that people began to truly understand how important they are to cities.