Creating Economic and Environmental Benefits

The City of Philadelphia’s Tree Plan aims to increase the city’s tree canopy while promoting a high quality of life for residents. To fulfill its Tree Plan promises, Philly needs to maximize its efforts to create economic and environmental benefits for all citizens.

• Maximizing available tree pits in prime locations
• Allowing trees better opportunities to thrive
• Paying residents to take care of the trees
• Keeping the Tree Plan on track

To achieve its goals, Philadelphia can draw inspiration from other cities’ innovative approaches. For instance, New York City’s MillionTreesNYC initiative has successfully planted one million trees throughout the city’s landscape from 2007 to 2015. Part of this program’s success lies in maximizing available tree pits, areas within the cityscape that are available for tree planting. In Philadelphia, street trees are planted by request and can’t be planted without a property owner’s permission. However, Philly’s Parks uses “opt-out” plantings, where Parks staff will plant trees in every available spot on a block unless a property owner declines. This approach can help maximize the number of trees in prime locations.

Allowing Trees to Thrive

While urban landscapes aren’t ideal for tree growth, Philadelphia’s existing street trees do quite well nonetheless. The average life span of a street tree in the city is about 19 to 28 years. However, with the right care and environment, trees can thrive and provide numerous benefits.

• Stockholm, Sweden, has begun experimenting with a method that involves digging 500-square-foot tree pits and filling them with 3- to 5-inch-diameter stones, compost, and biochar, which is rich in carbon.
• This growing environment nurtures the tree and allows it to grow strong enough to support the concrete above it.

Paying Residents to Care for Trees

While the Philly Tree Plan aims to assemble an urban forestry team, create stipends for volunteers, and hire more arborists and street tree inspectors, there is another innovative approach that Philly could consider: paying residents to cultivate and care for the trees.

• A tree program in Sierra Leone reforested 2,500 acres and created more than 1,000 jobs.
• Paying residents to care for trees could not only promote a sense of community but also provide economic benefits.

Keeping the Tree Plan on Track

Ensuring the Tree Plan continues receiving funding and attention is critical to the program’s success. To ensure the Tree Plan stays on track, program partners have created the Philly Tree Coalition, an organization housed within the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) that can support long-term planning and fundraising from public and private sources.

In conclusion, the City of Philadelphia’s Tree Plan aims to increase the city’s tree canopy while promoting a high quality of life for residents. By implementing innovative approaches such as maximizing available tree pits, allowing trees better opportunities to thrive, paying residents to take care of the trees, and keeping the Tree Plan on track, Philly can create economic and environmental benefits for all citizens.