City Seeks Residents With Green Thumbs

D.C. Hopes Beautification Takes Root

"Putting in the trees gives us something positive to talk about," one resident said of the District's planting program. (By Jahi Chikwendiu -- The Washington Post)

While throngs of tourists trek to the Tidal Basin to see the District's trademark cherry trees this time of year, some residents are discovering new magnolias, maples and dogwoods right in their own curbside tree boxes.

It's springtime in "Tree City USA," a designation given to the District some time ago by the National Arbor Day Foundation, and the city's Urban Forestry Administration has spent six months planting about 500 trees in each of the eight wards.

Every year from October to April the city spends about $890,000 to plant the 4,500 trees. This year, the planting started in Ward 8 in Southeast and gradually moved to Ward 1 in Northwest.

"We really needed some trees," said Kathy Henderson of Carver Terrace in Northeast. "People are so happy. I'm pleased that citizens are embracing trees so enthusiastically. Putting in the trees gives us something positive to talk about."

District residents should call the D.C. Department of Transportation, which oversees the urban forestry program, to request trees for their neighborhood. Although it's too late for this spring, residents who call by July 15 can put in orders for the fall planting.

Jourdinia Brown of Shepherd Park said she listed places where trees were missing and, last spring, asked the city to replace them. In October, the trees were planted along three blocks of 14th Street in Northwest.

"It gave the neighborhood an entirely different look," said Brown, who has lived in Shepherd Park since 1963. "It makes me feel very good because they have brought beauty to the neighborhood, and they help the environment."

John Thomas, the city's chief forester, said a tree-lined street has environmental as well as emotional benefits. They create a "neighborhood feel," Thomas said. Those benefits increase property values, generate more business and reduce crime, studies show. The trees absorb heat during the day and release it at night. They also help capture the rain, trap pollutants and produce oxygen, he said.

"They decrease your air conditioning use, improve air quality and reduce the ozone effect," Thomas said. "If you have a nice urban canopy, it helps the sewage system absorb water."

After the planting season, the city relies on residents to help nurture the trees. Without citizen involvement, some of the trees planted along the sidewalks will wither and die. Officials are hoping to form partnerships with residents to water and mulch the young trees. Thomas is speaking at Advisory Neighborhood Commission meetings, and fliers are being distributed throughout communities with directions on how to care for the trees.

After several trees perished last year, the city planted six more trees in the 700 block of Fairmont Street in Northwest this spring.

James Best, a 15-year resident of Columbia Heights who describes himself as "a nature person," said when the saplings were planted, he never envisioned they wouldn't survive. He said the neighbors didn't know they were expected to water them.