LANDSCAPE DIVISION OFFERS FREE TREES

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BY FRED M. GUIREY LANDSCAPE ENGINEER EARLY in the year nineteen thirty seven, the Arizona State Highway Commission passed a resolution that may, with the passing of time, prove as momentous as any decision that that body has ever reached. While the act itself was comparatively simple, it made possible a program whose far-reaching effect will be felt by the future users of our highway system for many years to come. The resolution that was enacted is in subsance the following: that the Landscape Division of the Arizona Highway Department is hereby authorized to furnish and install free trees and shrubs for persons living adjacent to the State Highway System, outside the confines of an incorporated city. The entire cost of the trees, their installation and mulching to be borne by the state. The property owner in return agrees to water and care for the trees, allow reasonable access to their shade to the traveling public, and delegate the sole right of trimming said trees and shrubs to authorized representatives of the Landscape Division of the Arizona Highway Department. It would perhaps be well at this point to go back a little in history, to show just how all this came about. Some three years ago, the State Highway Department, in cooperation with the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, started a new type of phase of highway construction, namely roadside improvement. Our work had not been long underway when a number of things became very apparent, among the most outstanding of those the need for shade on the desert at more or less regular intervals, where people using our highway could pull off to the side of the road and pause for a moment's respite from the heat of the summer sun. But recognition of this need brought to our immediate attention the fact that water, available for the maintenance of plant life, is, over most of our system, extremely limited, and the costs of haul ing it over long distances prohibitive. The big question, then, was how to get water. Obviously, there was only one practical solution. Place the material in locations where water was available. This, then, automatically took in developed areas, adjacent to the roadsides, such as service stations, auto camps, wayside restaurants, and the like. The supply of plant material was the next point to be considered. The Landscape Division had already established a nursery, in which material for replacements on our planting propects was being grown. To extend the activities of this nursery to growing plants for use adjacent to the highway system was an easy matter. In this we were greatly helped by both the U. S. Forest Service and the U. S. Soil Conservation Service. Members of the State Federation of Garden Clubs also donated numbers of young trees and cuttings. A great deal of stock was also grown from seed, and propagated from cutting by our own nurserymen. There arose at this time the question of how to avoid competition with commercial nurseries, not create a situation that would breed unpleasant consequences. Upon consultation with a number of our local nurserymen, we solution. Place the material in locations where water was available. This, then, automatically took in developed areas, adjacent to the roadsides, such as service stations, auto camps, wayside restaurants, and the like. The supply of plant material was the next point to be considered. The Landscape Division had already established a nursery, in which material for replacements on our planting propects was being grown. To extend the activities of this nursery to growing plants for use adjacent to the highway system was an easy matter. In this we were greatly helped by both the U. S. Forest Service and the U. S. Soil Conservation Service. Members of the State Federation of Garden Clubs also donated numbers of young trees and cuttings. A great deal of stock was also grown from seed, and propagated from cutting by our own nurserymen. There arose at this time the question of how to avoid competition with commercial nurseries, not create a situation that would breed unpleasant consequences. Upon consultation with a number of our local nurserymen, we

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found that the great majority of their businesses lay within the confines of incorporated cities, and that they did not solicit business in widely separated areas, where the cost of distributing their plants would be prohibitively high. This worked in exact accordance with our plan, for it enabled us to furnish trees to those who, normally would not be able to have them, and in no way deprived nurserymen of their legitimate business.

With this as a background, the plan was laid before our Commission and approved by it.

When the means of contacting property owners and finding out just who wanted what, arose, a very happy solution appeared in the form of cooperation with the State Federation of Garden Clubs. They have taken an intensive interest in Roadside Development since its inception, and have asked us many times in the past if there were not some way in which they could actively participate. Here, then, was an ideal situation. Living as the members do in cities all over the state, they would be in far betterposition than we to meet and talk to people living along our roadsides.

The work of contacting property owners also fitted the scheme of things from their standpoint, in that it did not have to be done all at one time, but could be accomplished over an unlimited period. In working with us in this way, the club members are performing an invaluable service, in that they as a number of organized individuals can spend more time by far with the property owners than could the small number of men that we might be able to put into the field for this work. Also, with all of us working together toward a common good, each of us feels an only natural personal pride in the work that he himself has done, and follows its development with much keener interest than that of a job done entirely by someone else.

We have provided the club members with a number of blanks, on which space has been provided for the entry of the name of the property owner, the location of his property, a sketch of the layout of his grounds, including house, existing trees and shrubs and water facilities, and the location of materials which he is requesting, and last, a space for the number and kinds of plants that he wishes. Club members will also be furnished with lists of stock which will be available for planting this fall, to help the property owner make his selection. As the requisition blanks come in, they will be dated and filed. When planting time comes, the requisitions will be withdrawn and filled in order of their receipt-first come, first served.

Our own men have devoted a great deal of their own time in the collecting and propagating of plant material. They have given up holidays, and often worked from dawn to dark to get plants started in the nursery, with the result that some thirty thousand trees and shrubs will be available this fall to you who want them.

Our ultimate aim is this: shade along our highways, and trees and shrubs at intervals in the desert to provide resting places for the traveler, and ultimately for the development of our state by making our highways more enjoyable for your use. Are you with us?