Park View, D.C.

The District of Columbia’s Department of Transportation announced the kick off of the 2017-2018 tree planting season last week and aims to plant more than 8,000 trees throughout DC.

A quick look at the tree planting map shows where new trees will be planted in our area. Each year, DDOT plants new street trees in empty tree boxes based on tree planting requests.

(Detail of 2017-2018 tree planting map.)

The full DDOT press release is below:

(Washington, DC) — The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Urban Forestry Division (UFD) kicked off the 2017-2018 tree planting season this week and set an ambitious goal to plant more than 8,000 trees.

“DDOT maintains more than 215,000 trees throughout the District,” said DDOT Interim Director Jeff Marootian. “We are committed to planting new trees, while simultaneously maintaining our existing ones. Urban forestry improves the environment and enhances quality of life. The District is recognized as a national leader in urban tree canopy and currently enjoys a 38.7 percent urban tree canopy. Our goal is to reach 40 percent by 2020. This planting season will move us even closer to that goal.”

DDOT employs a team of 25 arborist who plant and care for the District’s trees, partner with interested organizations, and educate residents on the benefits of urban tree canopy. Tree planting season runs from mid-autumn through mid-spring, depending on weather. This past season, the team planted more than 8,200 trees, exceeding its 8,000 goal.

In June, the team also introduced its DC Tree Watering Application, which helps users locate trees in all eight wards that need watering, tag trees they water, upload photos, and report trees in need of care (e.g., a tree has a beehive). The app also includes a story map with information about tree species found throughout the District.

For more information about the Urban Forestry Division and the tree planting season, and a map of the planned tree planting locations, visit DDOT’s Urban Forestry website.

This entry was posted on October 9, 2017 at 7:01 am and is filed under Streets and Trees. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: DDOT, tree planting, trees