Educational campaign adds interactive signs to trees around town as part of Earth Day

Did you know the ginkgo tree dates back to the dinosaurs and its leaves have been used for medicinal uses for centuries?

Did you know that farmers have used part of river birch trees to make yokes for cattle or that Native Americans boiled its sap to use as a sweetener?

Or that over the years the American elm has been used to make rope, canoes, barrels, boats and flooring?

You can find out all that and more as part of a new Nature Conservancy campaign called "If Trees Could Sing." As part of the campaign, three sets of local musicians - The Bohannons, Fletcher Bright and Dan Pinson, who performs with a group called Danimal Pinson - recorded short videos of themselves while standing in front of specimens of an American elm, a river birch and a ginkgo.

The Nature Conservancy and the City of Chattanooga have worked together to place interactive signs on trees in Coolidge Park, Greenway Farms Park and in Tennessee Aquarium Plaza. The signs will be officially revealed as part of Earth Day celebration on Friday in Coolidge Park. The event will include live music from The Bohannons, Danimal Pinson and The Laura Walker Trio as well as information booths manned by various environmental advocacy groups, food trucks and beer provided by Hutton & Smith.

The signs include a picture of the local artist, the name of the tree and the campaign and a QR code with instructions on how to access the videos on a smartphone. You can also go directly to them online at nature.org/iftreescouldsing, where each musician plays a bit of a song then talks about the various characteristics and uses of the trees. Other nationally known artists such as Reba McEntire, Amy Grant, Kathy Mattea, Bela Fleck and Ben Folds recorded similar videos that are part of tree signs placed in 12 communities across the state.

This is the first year that Chattanooga artists were asked to participate in the campaign that began in Nashville three years ago.

Nature Conservancy Communications Director Paul Kingsbury says his organization was looking for a way to get the message out that trees are vital to our survival and decided that enlisting the help of musicians would be a good way to attract attention. Being in Nashville, the country music capital of the world, campaign organizers figured they had a natural resource at their fingertips.

"We were looking for a way to break through the clutter of life and get our message out," Kingsbury says. "Trees are not just pretty. They clean the air and they cool the air, and they pull a lot of pollution out of the air. They also control flood water."

Kingsbury worked with Chattanooga Forester Gene Hyde and the city's Tree Commission on the campaign. Commission Chairman Mariah Prescott says the city wanted to be involved because the campaign "is a way to get the community involved in an urban forest and have a different view on why tees and an urban forest are important."

Marty Bohannon says his group has played some conservancy shows in the past, so when they were asked about doing the video, they were all in.

"This pretty well parallels a lot about the way we think," he says.

The Nature Conservancy chose the American elm for the band, and Bohannon says he was familiar with some facts about the tree but not all. In the clip, Bohannon, speaking for the group, points out that the elm was, at one point, used extensively around the country for cityscaping, but was decimated by disease before making a comeback thanks to the development of a disease-resistant variety.

"I knew a bit about that tree being planted in cityscapes all around the country, and I knew about the Dutch elm diseases, but I picked up some stuff, as well," Bohannon says.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354.