Some of you may have seen me (EZ) out yesterday (Saturday the 8th) with my tape measure recording the trees (or lack thereof) on the 500 block of Nelson Avenue. I’ve been working with Jim Snyder of the DRCA to document the pitiful state of the trees on our block and, like any project, we need to know the “current state” first. Hence, the tree survey I performed yesterday.
It sounds to me like there are four things which can be done about this situation:
1) You can plant a tree in the planting strip yourself. You could plant an acorn, go buy a sapling, whatever… The city has had several tree sales where they offer trees at a discount for residents to buy. The event has been quite popular and they have sold out every time (despite increasing the number of trees available each time). I’ll post in the future when I learn of the next sale.
2) If there is a stump in front of your house, you can contact the city arborist to have the stump removed. The city contracts this service out and, as best as I can tell, it is through laziness that the stumps are not removed. This is similar to the bait boxes in the alley behind Ginat/CVS – if we don’t keep on them, they don’t keep checking/rebaiting.
3) I do not yet know the detail but as I understand, the city will plant trees in the planting strip in front of your house. I’m sure the city arborist would be happy to provide you the details if you were to call. Maybe tell is what you learn by leaving a comment.
4) The DRCA is sponsoring a program to plant 100 trees (I suspect there will be more than 100?) in and around Del Ray. I am working with Jim Snyder to get as many as we can on the 500 block of Nelson Avenue. If you live in the 400 block and want to help, let me (EZ) know. I just don’t have the time to survey more than the 500 block.
One important thing is that any new tree needs extra care the first 3-5 years it is in the ground. And, by extra care I mean periodic watering when we don’t get enough rain. We lost a few new, young trees last summer due to the drought. If they have been watered a few times, we would not have lost them. So, if you plant or get a new tree in front of your house, keep it well watered the first few years and, hopefully one day they’ll grow as big as those beautiful trees in front of 409 Nelson Avenue.