Trees at the MN State Fair   Lee Frelich
  Sep 02, 2006 11:32 PDT 

ENTS:

Last evening I visited the Minnesota State Fair, and besides attractions
like the biggest pumpkin in the state (813 pounds), the food (lots of dogs;
corn dogs, super dogs, pickle dogs, pronto pups and elephant ears, cream
puffs, cheese curds, etc.), the life-size sculpture of the Princess of the
Milkyway done from a solid block of butter, the crop art portraits of all
our past presidents, and the animals like the biggest pig in the state
(1040 pounds), and cows (unfortunately a few stalls were empty because 600
cows were sucked up into lasts week's tornado, became 300 tons of flying
hamburger, and were killed before they arrived at the fair), there are a
considerable number of interesting trees.

The elm cathedral for example. Six magnificent American elms, three on each
side of the street, all in excess of 4 feet dbh, and forming a canopy over
the street. They are among the few left after the fairgrounds were hit by
several derechos and a resurgence of Dutch elm disease in the last several
years. How many times must these ancient trees have bent to the violent
summer winds and bitter winter winds of Minnesota in the last 150 years?
Not having a ticket for last night's Prairie Home Companion show with
Garrison Keillor, and having eaten too many pronto pups to continue
standing, instead I sat under the elms and wondered why they are still
there. Then it struck me that the Grandstand, a large stadium that holds
over 10,000 people, which is 100 feet tall and 1/4 mile in length, lies
just to the west of these trees. The grandstand splits the wind and creates
a calm spot where these giant trees grow.

Those giant elms that have succumbed to disease or wind on the fairgrounds
are still with us, since the base of the trunk of each is turned into a
sculpture. When the stump rots, a concrete base is put under these wooden
sculptures so part of each tree remains in the exact spot where the tree
stood in perpetuity. Its just one more of the oddities of Minnesota
culture--over time the fairgrounds have become a tree cemetery. The six
elms in the elm cathedral have been treated with Alamo, which should
prevent them from getting the disease until it runs its course in the
area. New elms, actually named cathedral elms, a disease resistant
variety, are being planted throughout the fairgrounds so that an elm
cathedral will someday cover the entire place once again.

Then there is the large black maple tree, probably 70 years old, and 30
inches dbh. Its leaves are deep green, thick and leathery, curled upwards
at the edges, with very long toothless points on each of the three lobes.
How did this tree get here? Who was planting black maples 70 years
ago? That part of the fairgrounds, on a hilltop, was an oak savanna before
the city was here, so it can't have been native to that spot. Someone had
to bring it from Wood-Rill, which is 20 miles away.

Last, but not least, is the absolute star of the fair, the bonsai exhibit.
Since all of our forests are going to die soon from global warming and
exotic diseases, we can all get into bonsai and have our own little forest
ecosystems right in the house. I saw 400 year old ponderosa pines, cypress
forests, a tiny tamarack forest (2 feet tall, actually not that much
shorter than a real tamarack forest in northern MN on a poor site) on a
slab of rock with tiny timber wolf figurines walking around on a mossy
forest floor. For a moment, looking at those little wolves, the tamaracks
looked like they were really 6 feet dbh. Tree size is all relative, and its
all in your mind.

Lee