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A landscape contractor working for Renton takes a break from mulching around his newly planted street trees to greet us and our horse Zeus, last October 17.
I’m way overdue to share a purely positive story on this blog, and there is no shortage of such stories to tell. Our City and our region are teeming with caring, beauty, hard work, and achievement.
Last October our City’s arborist and street department planted some lovely new street trees along NE 23rd Place and NE 24th Street, not far from my home, in the North Renton Highlands. This was just one of their ongoing planting projects. I caught the work in progress when I was out on a walk.
The trees consisted of Japanese Snowbell and Persian Parrotia, and they will noticeably add to the street canopy as they mature. Most of the neighbors were excited to see the trees, although there were a couple concerns from residents who had landscaped the planting strip just the way they liked it. Hopefully when the trees bloom this spring everyone will be as pleased as I was to see them.
These trees were planted as part of Renton’s Urban Forestry program, overseen by Urban Forester Ian Gray and Inspecting Arborist Gabriella Golzarian. This neighborhood was a good candidate for the new street trees, as it had city-owned planting strips on both sides of the street, and didn’t already have trees in these strips.
This spring they are planning to plant some trees near Redmond Avenue Northeast and Shelton Avenue Northeast between Northeast 10th Street and Northeast 12th Street on the Renton Highlands.
Renton’s Urban Forestry website reminds us that there are many advantages to maintaining a healthy tree canopy:
- Improves air quality by filtering pollutants and producing oxygen
- Helps fight climate change
- Helps control flooding and soil erosion
- Provides and improves wildlife habitat
- Provides shade and decreases heating and cooling costs
- Increases real estate values
- Attracts shoppers and other business activities
- Reduces crime rates
- Improves mental and physical health
- Enhances community spirit
To learn more about Renton’s Urban Forestry program you can click here
Newly planted trees line a block of NE 23rd Place, one tree per home, in Renton Highlands.
New street tree on NE 24th Street, prior to mulching.
There’s a strong argument that adding street trees increases property values so much that they payback to the city for the install and temporary upkeep comes back in about a decade in property taxes.
In addition to making to city nicer, helping with heat in the summer, and giving birds a place to be birds.
Thanks Ben for your comment. I read that you once helped circulate a request to get trees planted in North Renton. If so, can you recommend a good way for a resident who wants trees in their neighborhood to do this?
Perhaps contact the current Arborist and Forster – I don’t know the current ones, but the previous ones loved all the help they could get. It’s useful to go door to door as many people either didn’t open their mail or lost it. I estimate we got about 75 extra trees be meeting people one on one.
Current estimates are that the trees in North Renton have sequestered about 500 tons of CO2.
Thanks Ben. 75 extra trees and 500 tons of CO2 is amazing!