April 11, 2024
Provided image/Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
PHS regularly hosts mass planting events in the Philadelphia area in an effort to help expand the city's tree canopy. Its latest is scheduled for April 16-21.
One year after Philadelphia unveiled its final plan to expand the city's dwindling tree canopy, its partners are working to boost the number of oaks and maples along the sidewalk — and fast.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) will embark on one of its planting blitzes in the coming days. PHS Tree Tenders are aiming to plant over 1,100 trees in various parts of the city and its surrounding counties in just six days, beginning Tuesday, and are seeking volunteers to join them.
Fairhill, Germantown, Mount Airy, Graduate Hospital West and Queen Village are just a few of the neighborhoods the groups will visit during the planting marathon. Chester and Delaware counties are also set to receive a few dozen trees.
Though planting sprees are nothing new for PHS, which has hosted the events twice a year, the group is poised to dramatically expand the program. PHS is one of several partners in the Philly Tree Plan, a decade-long strategy that was finalized last year that seeks to increase the city's tree coverage from 20% to 30%. Those partners received a major boost in November from the U.S. Forest Service to implement the plan, to the tune of $12 million. PHS has plans in place for its funding, once it receives word from its federal sponsors.
"With the initial funding of the Philly Tree Plan from the USDA, we do expect to be able to grow our PHS tree planting programs and to establish a new Philly Tree Coalition which will be housed at PHS and whose (mission) will be to enact the Philly Tree Plan," Grace Savage, public relations coordinator for PHS, said in an email. "This new Coalition will work with partners and city government to grow tree canopy in seven priority neighborhoods in Philadelphia. At this juncture, we are awaiting final details of the USDA grant to begin this work."
Over $1.6 million was also earmarked for the Fairmount Park Conservancy, which will will focus on tree canopy restoration in East and West Fairmount Park and Cobbs Creek — and adding new trees to Strawberry Mansion, West and Southwest Philadelphia. TreePhilly, a program of the conservancy and Parks & Recreation, recently announced its latest yard tree giveaways, another longstanding effort to expand Philly's urban forest.
The city's tree canopy, which refers to the leaves, branches and stems that cover the sky when viewed from below, has been a matter of particular concern since a 2019 report found it was shrinking, despite efforts to increase it. Through the finalized tree plan and federal funding, Philadelphia hopes to achieve 30% coverage for each neighborhood by 2035.
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