Transcript: Non-Native Species Vs. Habitat Restoration
CLARICE: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this week’s episode of Environmentally Speaking.
MARISA: Hi, everyone. I’m Marisa Desautel an environmental attorney here in Rhode Island.
CLARICE: And I’m Clarice, coming in with this week’s topic. And we are keeping on the topic of green thumbs. So last week we talked about whether or not we have a green thumb and the extended growing season. This week we’re talking about an opportunity to grow and plant some trees.
MARISA: Some free trees.
CLARICE: Free trees. And I don’t know if you saw the pun to our scheduling invite.
MARISA: I did not.
CLARICE: If it’s tree it’s for me.
MARISA: Did you come up with that yourself?
CLARICE: No, I didn’t. Intern Pete did.
MARISA: Intern Pete. Very good. Yeah. We seem to be on an agricultural, horticultural kick for the last couple of weeks and I — I think it’s probably because we’re entering into a new season with summer being behind us even though everyone’s still experiencing 90 degree days. Schools are being canceled or half days are being implemented because there’s no air conditioning in these schools and the heat index is just too much for Rhode Island youngsters, so everyone’s feeling the effects. And trees can help with hot weather, with climate change, and especially keeping urban areas cooler.
CLARICE: Look at that segue. I love that.
MARISA: Tell us about the program.
CLARICE: Yes. So to celebrate Arbor Day the Rhode Island Tree Council, Rhode Island DEM, and Rhode Island Nursery and Landscape Association for Arbor Day, which is during Labor Day weekend which is now just passed as of recording, they’re giving away a thousand free trees to homeowners. So to homeowners in Rhode Island, they’re running this initiative to help folks. And what I thought was interesting is they were talking about the benefits of smartly planted trees.
MARISA: What’s the difference?
CLARICE: I don’t know. They mentioned it a few times about the benefits of smartly planted trees.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: They didn’t give tips on how to tell if your trees are smartly planted, but they did tell you that if they are it can help manage storm runoff, capture and store carbon, improve air quality, and obviously help cool your property.
[0:03:09] MARISA: Yeah. They provide shade and canopy and can keep your house cooler.
CLARICE: Uh-huh. All great benefits.
MARISA: This is an issue — I’m like leaning into the computer. All right, everyone. Get ready. Marisa’s got another strong opinion. Recently in the past maybe three weeks or so for whatever reason I’ve had this conversation at least a half dozen times with different people. Every time I see a tree cutting company or someone out there with a chainsaw cutting tree limbs I get highly agitated because there is this opinion in our society that if a tree is, quote, unquote, dead or has a limb that appears to be a threat what do we do, we cut the tree down. We cut the limbs off. We think that we are arborists and we know better than the tree. And it even happens on my property where people say, oh, yeah, that old tree is split down the trunk. You better cut it down.
CLARICE: It’s got to go.
MARISA: And my response to all these people is absolutely not. That tree knows how to be a tree. It knows how to live. It knows how to die. If it falls we’ll deal with it, or maybe we won’t because trees provide habitat whether they are dead or alive or in whatever condition, but the minute you start cutting trees and cutting limbs and putting them in the chipper you’re destroying habitat for native species that use it for breeding, nesting, foraging. And I don’t understand why we think we know better than what nature is doing on its own. So the topic is timely not only because of Arbor Day but also because selfishly I love to talk about myself on this podcast.
CLARICE: No. I’m with you. Listen, we’ve got several large trees in our backyard. I mean, they’re huge and they’ve been here my whole life. I think I’ve talked about this a few times. We’re in a home that was passed down to us, so these trees have been here long before I was on this earth and that they’re going to stay here. We are not going to touch those trees unless they become an imminent harm in which we have to.
MARISA: I mean, if it’s falling on your head get out of the way. That’s the only instruction that I have concerning these.
[0:06:01] CLARICE: If they become a danger or a harm, then we address them, but until they become a danger or a harm we’re not touching our trees. We love them. But what’s interesting about this article and what’s interesting about this program which I didn’t think — I didn’t expect this from DEM and from the Rhode Island Tree Council was all of the trees that they’re giving away — they’re giving away five different tree species. They’re all non-native trees to Rhode Island.
MARISA: How come?
CLARICE: Well, from what the article goes on to explain is all five species are noninvasive and apparently do really well growing in Rhode Island and these five particular types promote a diversity in Rhode Island that they’re looking to bring in.
MARISA: This is controversial, isn’t it?
CLARICE: I don’t know.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: I guess it is now.
MARISA: DEM and the CRMC both have a regulatory policy that if you are subject to a notice of violation in wetlands or coastal wetlands you have to replant and restore that area with native species, so I bet you this is a very controversial topic because if DEM is fostering a policy where they’re encouraging people to plant non-native species then what’s the difference between habitat restoration?
CLARICE: Okay then.
MARISA: Just a thought.
CLARICE: Look at this drama that we —
MARISA: I know. I wonder if the non-native species are being offered because of issues like supply chain as a result of COVID. Everyone is still experiencing a lack of certain inventory, computer chips, car parts, you name it. I wonder if trees — although, why would you be importing trees to Rhode Island if they’re a native species. Does anyone know this answer? If anyone has an answer, please let me know.
CLARICE: I will say pulling out two lines from the article a DEM spokesperson said that all the trees were selected for their history of growing well in Rhode Island, so while they’re non-native to Rhode Island it sounds like they are already here. So they grow well in Rhode Island without being invasive or affected by pests. The trees were also chosen for their energy-saving benefits.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: Those same benefits are also found in native trees and DEM balances the benefits of native trees which increases biodiversity with the benefits of trees that are easy to grow in a variety of different spaces and conditions because not every Rhode Islander has the same backyard. And that came from Evan LaCross and that’s DEM’s programming services officer.
[0:09:11] MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: So I’m wondering if they chose these trees maybe also for their ease of planting knowing that they were going to be giving these out. That could be another piece.
MARISA: Where do you get these trees? Do you just show up somewhere with your pickup truck and they throw them in for you?
CLARICE: I’m not sure. So I went on the Rhode Island Tree Council’s website and I went on the Rhode Island Nursery and Landscaping Association website and I couldn’t find how to sign up to get your tree.
MARISA: Ah, there’s the trick. Free trees but we’re not going to tell you how to get them.
CLARICE: I couldn’t find it. I’m a little embarrassed to say, listener, I think I spent maybe a half hour yesterday to see how you could get your free tree because I really wanted to follow up this episode with, and to get your tree here’s how. So I’m not sure if all thousand trees are spoken for and that’s why we can’t find more information now.
MARISA: Oh, maybe you had to apply in advance.
CLARICE: So the registration opened on August 25th.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: And as of today it’s September 8th.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: So I’m wondering if as of right now as we record all thousand trees are spoken for, so that’s why I can’t find anything because I did look this up just to double check yesterday on September 7th.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: So maybe that’s why I couldn’t find anything. They could have had probably tons of easy resources, but now that all thousand are spoken for I can’t find anything.
MARISA: Oh, I got you.
CLARICE: I don’t know.
MARISA: Okay.
CLARICE: I don’t want to say it’s difficult to find and they’re out there simply because I missed the boat, or maybe there are trees out there and it’s difficult to find.
MARISA: If you go to the DEM — I just Googled free trees Rhode Island. There’s a website that DEM is hosting called Energy-Saving Trees through the Arbor Day Foundation and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which is a topic for another day. But there is some information about how to apply for the 2023 spring registration. A thousand more free trees are available. These additional trees will be mailed directly to Rhode Island — Rhode Islanders who reserve them.
CLARICE: Oh, they get mailed right to you.
MARISA: Yeah. It’s got to be a sapling.
CLARICE: But it’s nice that it gets mailed to you. So I guess if you have a smaller car, you can still go get your tree. I also just found a notice they are out of trees.
MARISA: Oh, okay. So this podcast has turned into a free tree availability to here’s information about a program that you missed.
[0:12:10] CLARICE: Well, this was a kudos on this thing happened.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: But it looks like there’s a form to get notified about —
MARISA: For next year?
CLARICE: — next year’s.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: So I’ll put that in the show notes. So if you want to be put on the list to find out about, you know, next time they do this I’ll put that in the show notes.
MARISA: When you started talking about the Arbor Day connection to this program, I was trying to think back as to when I became a member of the Arbor Day Foundation a few years ago and I highly recommend it. It’s free. You can go online and sign up. They have a free tree giveaway. They send you a survey every year that you have to fill out in order to be eligible for the free trees, but it’s very easy and getting a sapling in the mail is very cool as far as I’m concerned.
And the history of Arbor Day itself actually began in the 1800s. It was a really small only town-wide celebration in Nebraska in the 1800s and then the Nixon administration ratified it, so Arbor Day is celebrated all over the world at this point. And the Arbor Day Foundation is the group that spearheads the celebration every year. It’s technically America’s official tree holiday.
CLARICE: What a fun fact.
MARISA: Yeah.
CLARICE: I enjoyed that.
MARISA: There you go.
CLARICE: And I just looked up the Rhode Island Tree Council again. I love their slogan, trees are cool.
MARISA: They are cool, aren’t they? I like that.
CLARICE: There we go. That’s our topic for today. You can sign up to get notified about free trees next year.
MARISA: And become a member of the Arbor Day foundation. Like I said, it’s a great organization and they do cool stuff.
CLARICE: Yeah. Good stuff. So this article which let me know about this program came from ecoRI News.
MARISA: Our fave.
CLARICE: Our favorite organization. Just a quick notice, by the time this comes out it will be after, but ecoRI News will, as of release, have celebrated their no trash bash celebrating their birthday and we are very excited to have been a part of that, so thank you, ecoRI News.
MARISA: Once again, thank you.
CLARICE: Yes. So if you knew about this, if you got a free tree that’s exciting. Let us know. Tell us what kind of tree you got if you find out. I wonder if it comes with a tag. Let us know. You can reach out to us on the socials at Desautel Browning Law. We are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. You can watch our videos on YouTube. Reach out to us via e-mail Marisa@DesautelBrowningESQ.
[0:15:09] MARISA: No.
CLARICE: No. That was wrong.
MARISA: That’s not right, Clarice.
CLARICE: info@DesautelBrowning.com.
CLARICE: There we go. Happy Friday, folks.
MARISA: You know, and there’s a — as we’re sitting here wrapping up there’s a tree truck coming down the road.
CLARICE: We were so close.
MARISA: It better not be stopping at my house. I’m going to go throw a shoe at them. Thanks, everybody.
CLARICE: Good luck.
