By Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007; DZ01
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.
"That's the city's job," said Best, who was watering the bright tulips and pansies in his yard at the end of a hot day. "They planted them. They never asked the neighbors to water them."
The Fairmont Street trees weren't the only ones that didn't live a year.
Magnolias, redbuds and dogwoods also were planted along a 1.5-mile stretch of North Capitol Street last spring. The urban forestry program hoped to make the street more aesthetically pleasing, while creating a traffic-calming effect, said Erik Linden, a spokesman for the transportation department.
The goal was to set up a greenway along North Capitol Street, with 265 trees, but the exhaust and the wind from the passing vehicles was too much for the young trees, Linden said. Only about a dozen remain this year, and the others have been removed.
Because the contractor guarantees replacement if a tree doesn't live for a year, plans are to replace those trees with more durable foliage, such as ornamental grasses or heat-tolerant perennials, Linden said.
Michael Stockton, a board member of the Palisade Citizens Association, said he's determined not to let the 48 trees recently planted along Sherier Place NW die.
"That's not going to happen here," said Stockton, who is asking his neighbors to adopt a tree or two and "water it, weed it and mulch it to make sure it grows."
"They've made an impact on our neighborhood," said Stockton, who requested the trees about 18 months ago. "When you live on a block with no city trees and they come in and plant them, it makes a tremendous difference. It's fun to see."
