Can't see the (urban) forest for the trees

Back in the 1970's the city's Elm tree population was devastated by Dutch Elm Disease. Once beautiful tree-lined avenues were reduced to barren roadways as a large percentage of our street trees happened to be Elms susceptible to the disease. Since it was the 1970's, pollution was something we all thought we were just going to have to live with. Because of that the city arborists searched for a suitable replacement tree that would be disease resistant and able to thrive even in a polluted environment. The Sweet Gum seemed to be the logical choice at the time. Hardy, relatively fast-growing, long-lived and very colorful in the Fall it seemed an ideal replacement for the City's decimated Elms. The only downside of the Sweet Gum as an urban street tree was it's spiny seed pods which cover the sidwalks in the Spring, causing tripping hazards and clogging stormwater catch basins. I'm told by people within the Parks and Rec department that the original nursery from which we bought all these trees assured the City that they were the non-fruiting variety, meaning no spiny seed pods. The only problem there was it takes several years for this type of tree to mature and begin producing seed pods. As we all now know our particular variety of tree is not what the nursery promised. I doubt the City kept the receipt... We need a plan for the care and replacement of our street trees. Our aging tree stock is beginning to decline and we have no established policy for their replacement. The City frequently tells residents we have no money for new street trees. That may be true. We don't have the money for a lot of things, BUT... Here's another one of my "crazy, young guy, you just don't understand the way things are done" ideas. First, we relax the current policy that requires any tree planted on a right-of-way have a two inch caliper. That's fancy arborist talk for a two inch diameter trunk. A 2 inch caliper tree is about 6 foot tall and can go for around $500 to $700. Little saplings are much less expensive. More in the $25 and under range. Much less costly to replace if they don't survive the first few crucial years. Second, we utilize volunteers to inventory our street tree population so we can anticipate when the trees will need to be replaced and where we need to plant trees to replace ones that have already been removed. Finally, we plant saplings. Lots of them. On seldom used public land, even Land Trust lots which don't seem to be doing much anyway except racking up codes complaints and mowing bills. We organize volunteer groups and even individuals who would be willing to host a sapling. We can maintain this tree inventory at little or no cost to the taxpayers and when we need a tree somewhere we'll have one, for free instead of six or seven hundred dollars to some nursery. As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree is 25 years ago. The next best time is today.