Читать книгу The Trees of San Francisco - Michael Sullivan - Страница 9

Preface

WRITING this book allowed me to combine two passions: trees and San Francisco.

Although I’m a botany amateur, I’ve always had a love for trees. I grew up in the hardwood forests of upstate New York, with maples, beeches, birches, and oaks; palm trees were things you saw on television in exotic vacation locales (like California). So when I moved to San Francisco in 1984, I was delighted to discover an entire urban forest that was almost completely alien to me—full of trees with strange shapes, exotic scents, unusual bark, colorful flowers, and leaves that stayed on the trees year-round. The one unifying feature among all these species was their unfamiliarity.

A few years later, I began volunteering with San Francisco’s nonprofit Friends of the Urban Forest. Over many years of Saturday-morning plantings and tree-care days with this organization, I became acquainted with the exotic varieties from around the world that have found their way to San Francisco’s streets and parks. As I got to know the city’s trees, I became familiar with their stories: their origins, histories, smells, textures and shapes, reproductive tricks, and relationships with Homo sapiens.

Like many before me, my immediate attachment to San Francisco had been partly visual—a reaction to the sheer physical beauty of its hilly, waterfront setting. But over time, the real attraction became the neighborhoods—unique, bohemian, beautiful, vibrant communities, each with a distinctive personality, and eminently walkable. I have enjoyed countless hours exploring the streets of San Francisco. Often my only purpose was the joy of discovery, enhanced by my growing appreciation of the city’s unique assortment of street trees. Each block had the potential for something new, and just as some people delight in coming upon a stunning Victorian home, a thriving Ginkgo biloba did the same for me.

I hope this book brings the same joy to those of you who live here and to those who are visiting. For San Franciscans, this book offers an easy opportunity to learn about the trees you pass by every day, trees that form the living part of our outdoor architecture. For the tourist (especially if you’re from the land of maples and beeches, like me), this book can open a door to the new and the exotic.