Port’s tree guy hits the road again

Port Washington Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Jon Crain is about to embark on his sixth long-distance bike ride to benefit forestry research.

Crain will ride 350 miles through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Greenville, S.C. to Asheville, N.C., on this year’s Tour des Trees, a five-day journey with stops along the way to hold educational seminars and plant trees.

One  highlight this year will be in Greenville, where the roughly 90 riders will participate in planting a Miyawaki forest as part of restoration efforts after Hurricane Helene devastated the area two years ago.

“It’s new to me,” Crain said of the Miyawaki forest, in which fast-growing native trees will be planted densely, forcing them to more quickly grow upward to seek out the sunlight. 

As they do so, their roots also grow faster, holding the soil in place and ultimately help prevent flooding.

“That’s the point, to prevent additional flooding,” Crain said.

During the tour, which runs from Sept. 12 to 18, the 90 or so riders hope to raise a total of $410,000. Crain’s personal goal is to raise $3,700.

Last year’s Tour des Trees raised $361,000, with more than $26,000 coming from the team of Wisconsin riders, Crain said. 

“We were No. 2 (in terms of fundraising),” he said. “We’re always close to the top. We usually have a strong team of riders.”

For Crain, a member of the Wisconsin Arborist Association, the Tour des Trees is a way to express his passion for forestry and trees and the benefits they bring to communities.

That passion, he said, dates back to his first job working on a golf course, which created a love of the outdoors and led him to study landscaping.

“It slowly shifted to trees and built from there,” he said of his passion.

He worked for private tree services, owned his own business and in 2011 became the City of Port’s forester.

Crain is also an avid bicyclist, and when he discovered the Tour des Trees, he said it was a perfect fit.

The first tour he took part in “really opened my eyes,” Crain said. “I was naive — I didn’t realize how much planning and research is needed for successful forestry programs.”

It impacts everything from proper planting techniques, species selection and environmental impacts — things Crain has put to use in his career.

“People don’t realize the amount of planning that goes into what we do and the care that goes into having a successful urban tree planting program,” he said. “It’s a really large investment of money and labor, and if it’s not done correctly you really miss out on the long-term benefits.”

The Tour des Trees, he said, has shown him how much people appreciate trees.

“It’s been great. I’ve always had a lot of support from the city, but it’s nice to see how important trees are to people,” he said.

Crain used the knowledge gained by the Tree Research and Education Endowment Fund (TREE), which is funded in part through the Tour des Trees, in his work.

“We rely heavily on scientific research to manage our city trees,” he said.

He is responsible for starting Port’s forestry program, which plants between 250 and 300 trees along the city streets and on public lands.

“We have scaled back on some of our planting,” Crain said, noting that when the emerald ash borer decimated the city’s ash trees his department planted 500 or more trees annually.

“We’re starting to see those trees grow up,” he said, and that’s created a need for workers to do a significant amount of pruning.

He’s also responsible for starting the city nursery, which contains about 500 trees started as saplings.

“It works out well,” Crain said. “It allows us to purchase the trees at a lesser cost, and they don’t require a lot of maintenance when they’re young.”

These trees are often used to supplement the stock purchased by the city for planting.

And when the city removes a tree, Crain said, “We try to use every part of it. We look at other city models to see what’s been successful.”

To contribute to Crain’s fundraising, visit https://tinyurl.com/4b4hzez4.