Trees are quickly becoming the next big status symbol.
The nicest neighborhoods have them, and soon many more will, thanks to the Baltimore Urban Forest Project?s Park Life | City Movement by Gensler exhibit, at Patterson Park.
Green minds from architecture firm Gensler, Baltimore City Recreation and Parks, Tilt Studio Foundation, Friends of Patterson Park, Americorps NCCC and European Landscaping highlighted Patterson Park?s natural beauty with burlap, stakes and sod. On May 8 an 9, 80 volunteers draped nearly 9,000 feet of 3-foot-wide red burlap through the Park?s elms and maples and over its rolling hills, planted 650 wooden stakes with information about Baltimore?s trees, and created landforms, or layers of rolled sod.
“We?re encouraging people to play, sit or even sleep on them,” said Rec and Parks? Anne Draddy about the inviting landforms. “The purpose of the exhibit is to get people to the park while raising awareness of TreeBaltimore.”
Within 30 years, TreeBaltimore hopes to have doubled the ground covered in Baltimore by leaves and branches, referred to as tree canopy. Baltimore?s current tree canopy covers only 20 percent of the City.
“Through [remote satellite] data, we found the most available areas to plant trees are on private, residential properties,” Draddy said. “That shocked me. I was blown away. We need to reach as many homeowners as possible.”
TreeBaltimore offered 50 free chestnut oak trees May 10 for visitors to take and plant at home.
Treesare critical to the environment as well as our quality of life, said Rachael Baird, co-owner of Tilt Studio Foundation, which helped organize Park Life. “They provide shade, beautify our surroundings, clean our air, provide wildlife habitat and increase property values. They just make Baltimore a better place to live.”
Free trees
Baltimore City residents can request the City?s Recreation & Parks Forestry Division plant a tree for free on property adjoining their property.
The service is free. But applicants must insure the roots of the tree are saturated with 20 gallons of water once to twice a week April through November for a minimum of two years, and meet other requirements. For more information, visit Baltimore City’s Web page here.
Of the 1,400 acres of grassland available for planting in Baltimore City, about 85 percent is in private properties, 10 percent is in parkland and 5 percent is in public institutional lands, according to TreeBaltimore. ? Jessica Novak
