The Susie Forest

One of the goals of the Susie forest is to make each tree meaningful to someone. The birthday and anniversary trees for Susie marking the beginning and end of her life are very meaningful to me. So I have set out to make all the other Susie Forest meaningful to other people. On Saturday three groups of Girl scouts came to the Arbor Day dedication and I talked to them about earning the Susie Forest patch. I hope they do and that this tree will be for the rest of their lives a connection to this part of their childhood.
On Monday the family of Lonnie Waln planted a tree along Grand Blvd to help make his life meaningful to the grandchildren who will only know him through pictures and stories. Seventeen month old Maryn Humewas most interested in shoveling while her brother Kehne was busy looking for more tree-kibbles. It was a time of tears and laughter.
Yesterday I took another batch of tree-grams to Jim Flott’s tree. It was a very dark and cloudy afternoon but as I hung the tree-grams a beam of sunshine hit the tree and disappeared as I finished. I think this act was meaningfulto someone and I hope it will be for Jim and his family.
I hope each that each person or group who has a Susie Forest tree finds meaning in it, but I find the people,many of whom I never knew before, and their stories have become very meaningful to me. As I drive around Spokane past the many Susie Forest trees, I think about all the people and stories that have now become a part of my life and Susie’s legacy. Thanks to all who plant a tree.

Yesterday I went to the Arbor Festival prepared for anything, even adding another tree to the Susie Forest. There have been a couple of Susie trees planted at these festivals but this year no one, not even me, brought up the subject. When I saw Angel Spell, the Urban Forester, I asked if there was to be a planting and if they wanted it to be a Susie tree. She confabbed with the head of the arboretum and, by gum, there is another tree in the Susie Forest. It was hard to gather the people for the dedication, but we found three Girl Scout troops, 3650, 3623, and 2079, to walk over to the site. They listened to my spiel, looked at my pictures, and wrote tree-grams. Sorry, I forgot the cookies. I’ve decided that this City Sprite Zelkova will be dedicated to those Girl Scouts.

Beth is here and now we’re going to see if I can get a picture into a post. Here we go!

Nancy and the St Louis Proclamation

Here it comes – maybe.

Last night I received word about Jim Flott, the first arborist I worked with in Spokane and his wife Merri Hartse that I worked with at the library. Their daughter Grace is studying in Paris and last week was badly injured in a gas explosion and fire at an apartment she was visiting. The only means of escape was to jump from the fourth floor. She is dealing with burns, heat inhalation and broken bones. Jim and Merri have rushed to be with her. Here I am wanting to help and not knowing what to do. After a weekend dealing with the loss of my own daughter this has hit me very hard. So I did what I know how to do – I wrote a tree-gram. I went by the South Hill Library with a handful and people who knew them wrote messages. I took them to the tree on 35th and Ray that I planted last year for Jim and hung them from the branches. I stood at the foot of this young Bur Oak, held tight to its rough bark and sent all the wishes on that tree toward Paris. Under the tree I left a plastic bag with more tree-grams and a note.

Mike hanging up tree-grams

I hope that more people who know them will come buy and add more to the tree; I hope that walkers through the neighborhood will stop and add more.

Everyone who reads this, please send thoughts and wishes and prayers toward Paris.

The trip to St Louis was wonderful but hard. It was hard to show Jack and Becky the corner where Susie was killed and hard to walk where she had walked to the Gateway Arch on her last evening. Somehow the cold and windy and rainy weekend seemed appropriate. And yet the flowers and the emerging leaves on the trees also seemed appropriate.
After getting to bed at 2:45 am because of a late plane, it was a groggy threesome that trudged to the arch on Friday morning to watch Susie’s tree go into the ground. The planting crew had to listen to my Susie spiel and look at the pictures and maps but they were rewarded with tree-kibbles which they deserved because they planted the Bur Oak correctly.
On Saturday the people from Great Rivers Greenway and Trailnet who made this planting possible came to dedicate this tree to Susie and to wish her happy birthday. None of them knew her but had heard wonderful things about her. It was very emotional to hear them speak about her influence. We wrote tree-grams which we hung temporarily in the tree for picture-taking because they are not allowed in national parks. They will be hung in Spokane’s mystery birthday tree when I find it. Someone suggested that I put my tree-gram under the mulch we shoveled. I like that idea because the disintegrating paper will feed the roots and send my thoughts through the entire tree. Perhaps I will do this for every anniversary tree I plant.
I don’t know how to thank the wonderful, welcoming people of Missouri for making this dream of mine come true.

My son Jack and I leave for the airport in a few minutes. In her journal from her bike trip in Australia, Susie wrote that we should strive for the bittersweet. That’s what this trip is. Tomorrow morning I will show her brother and sister where Susie was killed and then we will walk about two blocks away in the National Park and plant a beautiful tree that will be celebrated on Saturday, her birthday. I hope that a lot of people will come, so I can introduce Susie to those who didn’t know and renew her acquaintance with those who did. I’ll write more when I get home.

Last December I read an article in the paper that really moved me. It was about Carol and Karl Speltz and the beginning of Carol’s journey with Alzheimer’s. “They should have a tree,” was my immediate thought and I called the reporter to see if she thought they would be receptive. She thought so and I called and they were. Today, Spokane’s Arbor Day, we planted a Patmore Ash for them. I hoping this will be a touchstone – or perhaps a “touchtree” – for them, that the feel, the calm and the beauty of this ash will help them through this journey. They brought family and friends and a jolly time was had by all. Carol wants to invite all Alzheimer’s patients in and around Spokane to come, sit under, and enjoy their tree. I hope this wonderful couple stays in my life.

I believe in the power of trees but I don’t know that they can bring the sides together in Washington. I’d like to think that if they held their negotiations under the trees that things would go better.
The St Louis tree planting is on again if no roadblocks psp up this week.
This morning I will be speaking at Gonzaga University at the opening of Pedestrian Awareness Week. We’ll be writing tree-grams and some will be hung on trees on the campus and some will hang from the limbs of the tree in Riverfront Park that honors pedestrians who have been hit or killed. Every year during this week the tree-grams appear on that tree and I hope it reminds everyone who uses the roads to watch out for each other.

I’m waiting for the news this morning. I was going to put an event on the site but I don’t know if it will occur.
Jack, Becky and I have tickets to fly to St Louis on Thursday to honor Susie’s birthday with a tree at the Arch where Susie spent her last evening. We’re thrilled to have permission to plant a tree in a National Park and want to thank the great people from Missouri that we met last fall at the Pro Walk Pro Bike Conference in Chattanooga for making this all possible. BUT – if a federal shutdown lasts until next Friday there will be no one to plant the Bur Oak close to the south foot of the Arch. We need to come up with a plan B. Do we plant the tree later in the spring not on her birthday? Do we wait until next April? Do we plant another tree somewhere else in St Louis for her birthday? We’ll have to wait to see how today works out and if for the worse, how long it lasts. I’ll be writing more later.

I’ve taken off my rain-drenched hat, removed my mud-clogged boots, fixed a mug of hot cocoa and I’m in heaven. I arrived at the Sixth Ave planting site and watched the crew from District 81 put in the last of the six trees. They got some Tree-Kibbles to keep them going. The first two group of students, Special Education and Advanced Art, arrived and began shoveling and watering. The mistiness of the wather didn’t seem to bother even the kids in T-shirts. During the lull between periods I went to get my car tabs across the street and when I told the ladies there about the Susie Forest, one of them gave me a donation. Trees have great power! The second period brought the Drama club and the Japanese club. After their work, the Drama students sang “Happy Birthday” to their tree and the Japanese club sang to their tree in Japanese. I’ll have to say that I can no longer state that it never rains when a Susie tree is planted because there was actual rain duding this planting. After s short pause it was back to mist for the last groups, Debate and Ecology. These were small but energetic groups. What a great wet, muddy morning. The students all seemed genuinely pleased to be there and wrote great tree-grams. They sort of groaned when I talked about their 50th reunions and visiting their tree then.
I wanted to honor students that don’t get a lot of recognition and I’m so pleased that a photographer from the newspaper was there for the middle group. Here’s hoping that some of these students get their picture in the paper.
What a great morning. The hot chocolate is gone so it’s time to start planning for the next planting.