City to Offer Free Canopy Tree Plantings

The Urban Forestry Division of the City of Takoma Park is announcing an exciting new program called Tree Takoma. Starting in Fall 2022, the City is offering free canopy tree plantings to any interested private property owner within the Takoma Park city limits. We are very excited to be partnering with the DC area’s flagship tree planting nonprofit, Casey Trees, for this program.

Tree Takoma will offer both a tree planting consultation with a Casey Trees urban forester and the tree installation itself, both free of charge. The Casey Trees urban forester will work with you during the consultation to determine the best locations and tree species for your property. The program offers a diverse palette of native canopy trees, which changes from season to season and will be determined at the time of your consultation.

Consultations can be scheduled year-round, and plantings occur during the spring and fall. Trees will be a minimum of 1.5-inch trunk diameter or 6 feet tall and will be installed with a bed of shredded wood mulch and a deer guard to protect the trunk. After planting, your responsibility is to water the trees as they get established and care for them to ensure they lead a healthy and prosperous life.

Casey Trees will typically be in touch within six weeks to schedule a consultation. After the City provides your information to Casey Trees, they will be your contact for all information pertaining to scheduling the consultation, finalizing your tree planting plan, scheduling your tree planting, and addressing any questions you might have pertaining to the tree planting.

Native canopy trees provide numerous benefits to you and the City, including stormwater management, cooling the air, reducing heating, and cooling costs, beautifying the landscape, and more. Since the City only manages approximately 15 percent of the land area in Takoma Park, it is important that we partner with private property owners to plant trees and help in replacing the canopy that is lost each year.

We hope you will join us in this important work of maintaining the urban forest canopy of Takoma Park. To sign up for the program, visit the Tree Takoma webpage to submit an online request or visit the Public Works building at 31 Oswego Avenue for a paper form.

This article was featured in the September 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.