SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake city is a city of trees.
But it wasn’t always that way.
In fact for thousands of years, Native Americans lived and survived across this region without them. And when the first settlers arrived nearly 200 years ago there were still no trees.
“When the pioneers first came into this valley to settle it, they found very few trees, only a couple of different species along our waterways and creeks and rivers,” said Tony Gliot, Urban forestry division Director for the SLC Department of Public Lands. “But other than that, it was grassland and sagebrush. However, the settlers that came here, learned right away that they needed to plant trees for comfort, for wood for building materials and for food.”
According to Gliot, because there were not many tree species to start with, many of the original pioneers that came out here brought tree seeds and saplings with the intent of growing a forest in the valley.
“We had nothing to start with and planted just about anything we could come up with,” Gliot said.“And lo and behold, almost anything will grow here, if we water it,”
Tree planting became such a priority for Salt Lake City that when the city became incorporated in 1851 it required residents to plant and maintain trees along their streets for the benefit of all.
That’s why we see what we see today.
When Arbor Day was founded as a national movement in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton, Salt Lake was already well on its way to becoming an urban forest.
“Our urban forest here in Salt Lake City is one of the most diverse forests in the whole country, if not the world,” Gliot said. “We have 290 distinct species, species of trees growing here in Salt Lake City, which is more than five times the national average in an urban setting.”
Today the millions of trees bequeathed by the settlers are enjoyed by slc residents and visitors alike. And if you want to know more about the trees in your own neighborhood, the city of Salt Lake actually keeps an inventory of all varieties of tree species it maintains, which is over 91,000 trees. There is aninteractive map that you can use to find a tree, and learn about it’s location, size and species.
Map below shows thousands of trees maintained by Salt Lake City:
Although Gliot said the map needs updating, it’s become a useful tool for the city.
“So that when we have to maintain them either with pruning or in some cases removal or new planting, we know where our forest is.”
It’s a reminder that Salt Lake residents can take comfort knowing that while the city continues to grow, so will its urban forest. So long as we continue to care for it like the early settlers
“From the very first people that started settling the city when it was founded all the way through to today, we have this forest because people have chosen to water and care for trees and plant trees, Gliot said. “And that's a legacy that very few cities in our country can really hang their hat on.”
