In the 40 years during which Roger Gookin worked as a utility contractor for a local firm, he was taught to look at trees as obstacles — objects standing in the way of completing a project.
Now, after retiring in 2013 and later joining the Green Towson Alliance, Gookin sees trees in a different light.
"I see them as community assets," he said, speaking of Towson's trees and streams.
Gookin is putting that thought into action, volunteering to collect data for the alliance's Downtown Towson Tree Survey, which will identify, measure, count and assess trees on mostly public land in downtown Towson. The work is being completed with the help of some faculty and students from Goucher College.
On a sunny Thursday afternoon on Pennsylvania Avenue, Gookin stood with his wife of 40 years, Jane, Goucher College associate professor of biology and ecology, Cynthia Kicklighter, and a handful of students, examining and recording details about the large trees along the sidewalk casting shade on the concrete below.
After about a year of discussion, the Green Towson Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving and promoting green space in Towson, launched an effort to take an inventory of Towson's trees this summer to determine where trees were needed, where trees were unhealthy, and where trees should be replanted.
Wendy Jacobs, a founding member of the group, reached out to Goucher College for assistance and this semester students from the school's field ecology lab course, taught by Kicklighter, as well as two other courses taught by environmental science professor Germán Mora, have taken field trips to the streets of downtown Towson to measure, identify and assess the status of the area's trees. Goucher is providing the help free of charge.
The inventory will include trees on public land in the downtown area, though Jacobs said some trees on private land have been surveyed when the alliance got permission to enter the property. Figuring out which types of trees are growing around Towson and measuring the trees' health, height and diameter will give the Green Towson Alliance an idea of what can be done to make Towson's stock of trees healthier. Exactly what that means will be determined by what the study shows. The survey will help the group look at where sick trees might need care and where trees should be replaced, Jacobs said.
"We'll refine and present the data in ways that will be useful for improving tree coverage downtown," Jacobs said.
Jacobs said she is not aware of a similar study for the area; the survey the group is completing will give them some baseline data. Jacobs couldn't estimate the number of trees in the area currently.
The students and Green Towson Alliance volunteers use a phone to mark the exact GPS coordinates of each tree, measure the trees' circumference, and estimate the trees' height using trigonometry. Students were already completing similar work for a field ecology lab course in the forest on Goucher's campus, so it was easy to modify that lesson to help with the Towson tree survey, Kicklighter said.
There have been some challenges to studying trees in an urban setting, Jacobs said, adding that it can be difficult to survey trees safely along busy roads, such as Bosley Avenue.
Kicklighter and her students were sticking to less-crowded roads on Thursday. One challenge for her group was identifying non-native and ornamental trees, she said. She is a marine ecologist by trade, and feels more comfortable working in the water, not the land.
After huddling under one of the shady trees on Pennsylvania Avenue and talking with students for about ten minutes, a tree between the sidewalk and roadway was tentatively identified by the group as a Chinese Elm.
The survey is valuable, Kicklighter said, because trees are important to urban environments. Trees provide shade, soak up water that may otherwise run unfiltered into local streams, reduce air pollutants and provide habitat for other organisms.
Trees are aesthetically pleasing as well, Kicklighter said.
"Studies show that just being in nature can make people feel more relaxed. It's good for mental health," Kicklighter said.
Green Towson Alliance volunteers were invited to speak to classes at Goucher to explain their activism and environmental advocacy, Jacobs said, giving them a connection to the community. Senior biology major Sierra Duca completed similar field work this spring while studying abroad in Costa Rica, but said its fun to work locally.
"It's nice to do something close to home, and that has relevance to where I live," Duca said.
Baltimore County Councilman David Marks is a supporter of the study, he said, and has discussed the survey with Jacobs. Marks said he wants to preserve the mature forestry around Towson, and said the study will help that cause.
"I think people in Towson want a network of greenery and they want sustainable development, and I think the study helps with both those goals," Marks said.
Goucher students and the Green Towson Alliance aren't likely to catalog every tree this semester, Jacobs said. She hopes the alliance can continue to work with Goucher, but no definitive plans have been made.