Bush Urges Tree Planting to Cleanse Air : ‘Greening of Amercia’ Is Low-Cost Part of Environment Stance

President Bush, urging a “new greening of America,” proposed a national tree-planting campaign today as a low-cost part of his clean air strategy.

He suggested planting trees along the nation’s interstate highway system as a good place to start. Referring to trees as “the oldest, cheapest and most-efficient air purifier on Earth,” Bush declared: “We need to reforest this bountiful Earth.”

Bush made the comments before a tree-planting ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of South Dakota’s statehood. He was also to participate in similar centennial tree plantings later in the day in Helena, Mont., and on Tuesday in Spokane, Wash.

‘Help Them Along’

“You in South Dakota know what it takes to plant a tree. It doesn’t take a federal program. It doesn’t take a new bureaucracy. And it sure doesn’t take some fancy new study,” Bush said. “What it takes is a shovel.

“Nature has powerful rejuvenative forces, but we need to help them along.

“In the middle of this century, we built the interstate highway system, the greatest ground transportation network since Rome. Now let’s make these corridors beautiful, quieter, greener--and cleaner.”

The President told his audience that it was time to rekindle the conservation ethic forged by President Theodore Roosevelt, who he noted was the only 20th-Century President enshrined on South Dakota’s Mt. Rushmore, which also bears the likenesses of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

Saying “our stewardship of the Earth is brief,” Bush noted that he had already sent Congress amendments to the Clean Air Act calling for major reductions in urban smog, acid rain and toxic emissions.

‘Got to Clean it Up’

“It’s not enough to stop dirtying the air. We’ve got to clean it up,” Bush told his audience.

In comments that seemed to come full circle from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 observation that trees are a major cause of air pollution, Bush told his audience “every tree is a compact between generations.”

Reagan was roundly criticized during the 1980 presidential campaign when he said that most atmospheric contamination comes from natural rather than man-made processes and that trees are responsible for 93% of the nitrogen oxides in the atmosphere. Environmentalists said Reagan was confused about nitrous oxide, which comes from decaying plant matter and is not harmful, and nitrogen oxide, which is emitted by coal plants and is a pollutant.