TAMPA, Fla. - The city of Tampa will be adding hundreds of trees in two communities as part of the mayor’s mission to plant 30,000 new trees by 2030.
“We were known, previously, as having one of the best tree canopies in the world,” Mayor Jane Castor said. “Every five years, USF does a tree study in the city. This last tree study showed that we had lost approximately 8% of our canopy. And so, we are doing all that we can to replace that and replace it with trees that make a difference.”
This is always great news however I find people and organizations never do any watering , fertilize trees, or even look after they have been planted.
Trees don’t need to be watered here after they are established, nor do they need fertilizer (and we aren’t really supposed to use much fertilizer here because it gets washed into the bay). I went to the tree giveaway last year and they had people height (5-6 foot) trees of several varieties, nothing exotic or invasive. You had to sign up ahead of time. We got 2 red maples and advice on how to plant them, and had to give details in the sign up on our address and where they would go (backyard, front yard, side). It’s a great program, but the old old trees keep getting cut down for construction. Apparently it’s pretty easy to get permission even though they are supposed to be protected Grand Oaks.
I’m glad to hear that the program is not being run by nimrods trying to do this as cheaply as possible. The number of times I see headlines like this and see that it is monoclonal and usually a non-native species, even if it is an invasive species brought into the region a hundred years ago.