Board head bullish on trees in Cape Girardeau, county

Jennifer Behnken, the chairwoman of the City of Cape Girardeau's eight-member Tree Board, put her message succinctly to members of the City Council this week.

"Trees are not just aesthetically pretty," said Behnken, whose day job for the last five years has been as an urban forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

"(Trees) add a lot of value to a community," she said Monday, speaking in a Zoom session to Mayor Bob Fox, city manager Scott Meyer and the city's six ward council members.

One of the board's stated objectives is to seek out what Behnken called "exceptional" tree designations within city limits.

Behnken made specific reference to a 200-year old American beech, one of 118 "state champion" trees in Missouri, located on the grounds of the old St. Vincent's Seminary behind the Dobbins Center on Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

A heart with initials carved into the trunk of an American beech tree, believed to be more than 200 years old, is seen Monday on the grounds of Southeast Missouri's River Campus in Cape Girardeau.Jeff Long

The state champion classification is bestowed on any tree identified as the largest of its species in each state.

Three criteria are evaluated into determining what makes a state champion: the circumference of the trunk, the tree's height and the crown spread of the tree.

Cape County

Cape Girardeau's tree board received a 2020 TRIM (Tree Resource Improvement and Maintenance) grant from MDC to inventory trees in Arena Park.

A previous TRIM grant received in 2012 inventoried trees in Capaha Park.

The mandate

"Our job is to hug (the tree) or recommend it be cut down," said Behnken, who told council members of her board's wide mandate to study, investigate, counsel and develop at least on an annual basis a written plan for the "care, preservation, pruning, planting, replanting, removal or (other) disposition of public trees in parks, along streets and other public areas."

Some trees are damaged or diseased and must either be repaired or removed.

Behnken showed lawmakers a picture of a tree whose growth destroyed a sidewalk section in the city and had to be taken down.

The upside of trees

Behnken told the City Council that trees have at least 11 distinguishable benefits.

• Capital asset to any community.
• Improve mental and social health.
• Help decrease utility costs.
• Help increase property values.
• Have a positive impact on tourism.
• Caring for them is a job creator.
• Help with stormwater runoff.
• Improve water quality.
• Home to wildlife.
• A major food source.
• Improve a city's aesthetic appeal.

Goals

Behnken said the board wants to help Southeast Missouri State University gain a Tree Campus USA certification.

"We also want to engage more volunteers and enhance public spaces (with trees)," she said.

Behnken said Cape Girardeau has been a "tree city," recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation for the last 21 years as one of 3,400 communities in the U.S. with the designation.

"The designation allows us to maintain a tree board (in Cape Girardeau) and to develop tree ordinances," she said.

The activity bringing the board the most attention each year is Arbor Day on the first Friday of every April.

"We do (tree) planting in community spaces on that day and will do so again in 2021," Behnken said.