Des Moines Register
06-05-06
Resident creates 'tours' of city trees
By ELIZABETH OWENS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Urbandale residents needn't look any further than the city Web site for an idea on
how to get some exercise while learning.
Resident Dave Bartemes' Five Miles of Beauty, three walking tours of Urbandale
featuring common trees and shrubs, was posted at www.urbandale.org a few
weeks ago. Bartemes, 67, did the project, which chronicles his love for trees and
shows off his favorite trees in Urbandale, as a public service project for his
master woodland manager's certification.
Program participants are supposed to complete 32 public service hours.
Bartemes estimates he put in about 90 hours on the project.
"I was having fun," he said. "I wasn't counting hours."
One of the three tours on his project, the Old Urbandale tour, begins with the pin
oaks at Lions Park, 72nd Street and Aurora Avenue.
"One afternoon, I picked up my camera and my tree identification books,"
Bartemes said. "After I finished at Lions Park, I thought of what I knew nearby."
The next stop on the tour is the Olmsted-Urban House, 4010 70th St.
"I just sort of let my nose lead me," Bartemes said.
Besides Old Urbandale, Bartemes offers a guide to what is mostly the Greenbelt
area around Lakeview Park and north. The third route is along North Walnut
Creek between Douglas Avenue and Hickman Road.
Paul Wray, who taught Bartemes' course in summer 2004 and is now an
emeritus professor of forestry in the Department of Natural Resource
Ecology and Management, said Bartemes' project was not typical.
"David's project was a bit unusual because he took on so much and designed it
from start to finish - and the great item is that it will live on and provide benefits
indefinitely," Wray said.
"It is one of those projects that we will use as an example of what can be done as
a volunteer."
The master woodland manager's program has been supported by the Bureau of
Forestry, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and forestry extension at
Iowa State University, Wray said. The purpose of the course is to develop a
network of motivated and trained volunteers to assist in the improvement and
expansion of woodlands tree resources.
Wray said typical projects are talking with a neighbor about woodlands, holding
school programs and events and manning the extension's answer-line phones.
Some people become lifelong volunteers through the project, he added.
Bartemes, who is retired, said he was already interested in volunteering before
starting the project. He serves as a permanent deacon at St. Pius X Church in
Urbandale.
Five Miles of Beauty was completed about six months ago, Bartemes said, after
he started it around August 2004.
When Bartemes first started working on his project, he wanted to incorporate the
60-acre tree farm he owns in Wayne County, but nothing panned out. Then,
while paging through Urbandale's Web site he realized the city had a tree board.
He said the project evolved from there.
The city gave its stamp of approval, and Bartemes was on his way.
Bartemes' project is extensive - it tells about him spending his teenage years on
a farm in central West Virginia, which is where his fascination with trees started.
His project wasn't just to complete a requirement, Bartemes says in his
introduction, it was to share knowledge about trees and to foster care for trees in
the Urbandale community.
It isn't set in stone that these are the most beautiful trees in Urbandale, but it's a
starting point for the walker to "use your own imagination to discover the trees
and shrubs that are especially appealing to you," Bartemes wrote.
The project includes a glossary, pictures and detailed descriptions of the sites on
the tour, maps and directions.
Good trees are an effective way to have an attractive residential property,
Bartemes said.
"I think the purpose of the tree walk was so people thinking about planting a tree
can find trees they like and see what they might look like when they grow up," he
said.