With the funds, the city will plant and maintain 150 new trees in Cudell and Buckeye-Shaker, the two neighborhoods serving as pilot areas in the implementation of the Cleveland Tree Plan, launched by the city last year.
One hundred and fifty trees sounds like quite a few, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 100,000 trees that Cleveland has lost since the 1940s — back when it was still known as the Forest City — impacting issues as diverse as air quality and home values.
The city’s collaborative plan to restore the urban canopy wants to mitigate the estimated 97 acres of canopy lost every year. Unsurprisingly, the best way to do that is by planting trees, and every tree is a step in the right direction. If we don’t plant more trees, Cleveland officials said last year, the city could fall to about 14 percent tree cover in 2040. It’s at 19 percent now, significantly lower than coverage in cities like Pittsburgh (40 percent), Cincinnati (38 percent), and even New York (24 percent).
The announcement of the grant cited numerous benefits to the upcoming plantings, among them: improved air quality; energy conservation; storm water management; and, not to be overlooked, residents engaged in environmental stewardship activities.
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
WCPN has surprisingly featured several solid long-form news features on this issue.
The City of Cleveland’s current care and maintenance of trees is deplorable! Add to that no leaf pickup, no street cleaning and no leaf recycling and you get clogged sewer basins. It took me TWO years of contacting my councilperson, the City, and the community development corporation to get the sewer basins cleared on my street.
At least part of the reason we have lost so many trees is that the City’s first line of defense has been to cut down diseased trees instead of treating them (see: The Emerald Dilemma, Clevescene 12/16/ 09). Thanks to Roger Scheve and the residents of W50 St. / Franklin block club the ash trees are once again flourishing in their neighborhood. BTW, the City was opposed to the treatment that eventually worked.
I live across from a City owned property that has dozens of trees in need of preventative maintenance. Even if a tree is struck by lightning it takes the City months, if they bother at all, to remove the remaining trunk / limbs. And the leaves in Fall are a nightmare ( I’ve seen City employees using blowers to direct leaves into the sewers) .
I am all for the restoration of trees in the City of Cleveland but it will take a lot more than a federal grant for me to believe that NOW the City will step up and maintain the trees under their care, even if it is just in two neighborhoods.
The trees look lovely — until the electric company cuts a giant “V” into the center of them.
OMG! Another project that the city will not be able to maintain. As we are well aware, the city refuses to conduct leaf pick-up. The city refuses to clean the sewer basins which causes water in the basements within our oak lined street. Be way, I hope everyone knows when the trees mature and begins to displace the sidewalks, you as the home owner inherits the responsibility to fix the sidewalks.
Oh well, plant the trees and screw the tax payers again.