Thirsty Trees

Last week, we held the third District 4-wide community event of my term. MPRB Forestry staff, Ben Shardlow of the Downtown Improvement District(DID) and area community leadership gathered to discuss both Forestry and DID’s process for watering newly planted trees and brainstorm ways communities could support this effort. Forestry started out by giving an overview of their watering strategies and discussing the resource Brewing a Better Forest….where community can see the exact locations of trees planted within their neighborhoods each year. DID then talked about their efforts to hire contractors and organize volunteers to water downtown trees in partnership with Forestry. Community then had a time to ask questions of the representatives and brainstorm watering ideas. Of particular concern was how to engage neighborhood’s multiunit property management to support boulevard trees.

Leadership of 13 neighborhoods had a chance to connect across boundary lines and share ideas which could help one another. One particular positive outcome was a stronger connection made between the Elliot Park neighborhood board and the DID staff, brainstorming ways to improve the greening of Elliot Park next season.

Let’s remember our trees next season and sign up to adopt a tree for consistent watering through Brewing a Better Forest. As an action plan, neighborhood groups could research and follow-up on all the newly planted trees within their boundaries and recruit interested volunteers to support. This is one practical way we can age our urban canopy and not waste tax dollars on continually replanting.