painted tree trunks in city parks

[franksolich]

I have a cold, and per instructions and inclination, I've been spending a lot of time in bed.

Those times I can't sleep, I read.

In a book by the late critic H.L. Mencken, about growing up in Baltimore during the 1880s, he mentions that tree trunks in the city parks of the time were painted white, up to about 6' from the ground.

I thought about this, and vaguely recall that I had seen such a sight, although it was a rare one, when a little lad, although I don't recall exactly where; perhaps a city in Michigan or upstate New York.

There was probably a reason for painting tree-trunks white, but I can't think of one.

Can anyone else?

[Lord Undies]

The trunks are painted to discourage pests.

[franksolich]

Oh.

They still do that?

[jtyangel]

The trunks are painted to discourage pests.

Yep, they still do it a lot in Arizona when I lived out there.

http://orchard.uvm.edu/aim/9697neapmg/trunk.html

[SaintLouieWoman]

I can remember tree trunks painted white, maybe 5 or 6 feet high, on some of the trees in city parks in St Louis. But then many of the folks would also have their trees topped so heavily that they looked like weird little abstract sculptures, with no branches, just stumpy little prongs. I guess they thought it made the trees look more "bushy" eventually. Usually I think it just killed the trees.

The whitewash might have been some sort of effort to keep insects from the trees. I can't think of any other reason it would be done.

My tree in the yard reminds me of one of those butchered trees. When we had all the winds that were remnants of one of the hurricanes this summer, the tree limbs fell onto the 2 patios here. One brushed the gutters. I still have to get them repaired before winter really sets in.

I couldn't take that tree all the way down. It was such a majestic tree, but dangerous with large limbs extending over the fences. So the tree guy left the trunk and 3 main prongs. It looks silly, a poodle of a tree, with little pom poms of leaves. We're hoping it comes back in the next several years. I had to give it a chance.