Green is way hip, as we all know. We drink green tea and renovate our homes with green materials and build green skyscrapers. Pretty soon we’ll be pumping green gasoline.
Few things are more authentically green than a tree; nothing nurtures our inner green spirit like planting one; and when in need of a shot of green, best thing to do is stand in a grove of trees.
We in D.C. can’t agree on much; take the mayor and council squabbling over baseball tickets. But we can all agree that trees are green and good, and we need to protect the ones we have and plant many more.
Which brings me to Casey Trees and its first annual “tree report card.” This Saturday, the nonprofit dedicated to the health of the tree canopy in the nation’s capital is scheduled to issue its assessment at a news conference at Georgetown University.
I don’t pretend to have the total scoop on the report, but my investigation shows that at a time when most of what we care for is receding — credit and jobs and free time — trees in D.C. are holding their own.
“The amount of tree cover we have in D.C. compared to urban East Coast and West Coast cities is pretty good,” says Mike Galvin, deputy director of Casey Trees. “But because we’re OK doesn’t mean we can’t do much better.”
We were doing much worse in 1999, when American Forests reported that the District had lost 25 percent of its street trees.
Philanthropist Betty Brown Casey donated $50 million to establish an endowment for a new tree advocacy organization. Even trees need a lobby. This one, begun in 2001, speaks for trees and plants them as well.
“Planting has been going well,” Galvin tells me. “We started in 2003.” Casey works with D.C.’s environmental agency to help private landowners plant up their yards. It gives $50 rebates per tree planted by residents who sign up for the program; it helps homeowners figure out where to plant trees and gives them the trees; it plants trees as part of the Riversmart program that seeks to soak up runoff before it reaches waterways such as Rock Creek.
Galvin says Casey has planted 5,000 trees. But it’s not the only tree-planting group in the city. The National Capital Cherry Blossom Festival plants cherry trees all over town. And the District’s Urban Forestry Department plants trees in public spaces and parks.
“We planted between 3,200 and 3,500 in the last planting season,” says John Thomas, head urban forester. The Urban Foresters just finished planting 80 “bare root” trees around town. The “season” runs from October to April.
Now is the time to plant a tree or two. It’s not the best season; the optimum tree-planting time is fall. But early spring is swell. May can been too far toward summer; trees planted in June often suffer from heatstroke.
So call Casey, get a rebate and plant a tree; it will satisfy your green guilt all summer long.
