Patrick Kerkstra, freelance journalist, wrote Simplest, cheapest route to a greener city in Insights, his urban affairs column in last Friday’s Philadelphia Inquirer. He applauds the City of Philadelphia’s goal of planting 300,000 trees by 2015 and lauds PhillyTreeMap.org, which inventories and values trees and potential planting sites. He says that “Tree Planting is the bluest of blue-chip investments, a low-risk, high-reward proposition.”
TTF loves trees, too! And we are doing our best to get more trees planted in our watershed. We work with both Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s TreePhilly initiative and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) to support their tree planting efforts at the neighborhood level, from Germantown to Abington!
We love trees because trees decrease stormwater runoff and pollutants, improving the health of our creeks and watershed…which is what we are all about! The London Plane tree near Patrick Kerkstra’s home intercepts over 6,000 gallons of stormwater a year! (In addition to cutting down on our cooling bills, and removing air pollutants and carbon dioxide from our air.)
Want to support our tree efforts? Contact us to volunteer for tree surveying or to help with PHS Tree Tender groups in our watershed. Contact Abby at 215-844-8100 or abby@ttfwatershed.org.
Or you can make a donation to help with our tree program staff and supply costs.
And Patrick — thanks, again! See you around some trees soon!
