South Philly Review

Share this Story:

Tons of people would bark if the region’s trees began disappearing en masse. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society craves no such vanishing and wants plenty of plants to aid the environment, beautify streets and preserve homeowners’ finances.

The 184-year-old organization helped to accomplish those Friday, welcoming 42 volunteer groups to acquire trees from The Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Building 14, 4921 S. 16th St.

The gathering began at 9 a.m. in the space the nonprofit entity leases to store materials for its annual international flower show. The attendees received a total of 1,000 bare-root trees that they planted Saturday and Sunday, the latter being the first day of Earth Week. Their participation furthered the society’s 1-month-old Plant One Million campaign, an initiative aiming to add one million trees to 13 counties in the tri-state region.

“Everyone is so pumped to assist,” Michael Leff, a society employee, said just after the seven-hour distribution began. “It is almost like a party atmosphere.”

Leff serves as program manager for TreeVitalize, a seven-year-old statewide public/private partnership with the society heading its southeastern Pennsylvania operations. Separate from the main campaign, the organization works through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to overcome the loss of millions of trees to development.

Leff and his colleagues welcomed the trees from Springville, N.Y.’s Schichtel’s Nursery Inc. April 13. More than 50 types awaited Friday’s throng, with South Philadelphia’s residents eager to indulge in the variety. The Pennsport Tree Tenders group nabbed 18 trees, mostly for residential planting between Front and Fifth streets from Snyder to Washington avenues.

“We have lost four mature trees to age and disease in the last three years,” leader Amy Weidner of the 300 block of Dickinson Street said. “I knew we had to do something.”

She and neighbor Margaret Barnes-Delcolle decided to attend the society’s nine-hour Tree Tenders course, through which they learned the elements of tree biology, identification, planting, pruning, root care and urban stresses on trees. They also earned tips on community organizing, bits that pulled in Jim Williams.

“I love helping my neighbors,” Williams, who loaded the various trees onto his truck, said. “Amy wants to beautify the area, and I want to assist.”

Weidner, who planted 12 trees last fall, had 9-month-old daughter Harper and 2-year-old son Garrison with her. The eager children watched as their mother helped Williams. Though the leader of the community group, Weidner feels anyone can excel at caring for the environment.

“Margaret and I are just two people who wanted to change our street. All someone needs to do is come out at most two times a year,” she said of the spring and autumn plantings, “and give the tree 15 gallons of water once a week.”

The March through December aquatic applications count among the many guidelines those with arboreal interests must meet.

“We receive numerous requests for street placement,” Leff said.

Those petitions go to the Parks and Recreation Department, which determines if a site is a proper location. The office and society establish an apt tree species for the spot. To stand a better chance at approval, applicants must consider distances from corners, assorted signs, poles, hydrants, driveways, storm water drains, manhole covers, utility lines and other trees.

With so many potential obstacles, Philadelphia possesses a lackluster tree canopy cover — the area of land shaded by trees — of 16 percent. The Plant One Million campaign strives to boost the citywide figure to 30 percent. Sadly, South Philadelphia owns the lowest at 1.8 percent, which the society’s public relations manager Alan Jaffe attributes to tight, densely populated streets. However, Friday’s event stoked his confidence.

“Since we began Plant One Million, South Philadelphia has responded well. Look at the number of groups from the area today,” he said of representatives from Bella Vista, East Passyunk, Lower Moyamensing, Newbold, Passyunk Square, Pennsport, Point Breeze, Queen Village, South of South and West Passyunk.

Two springs ago, Mayor Michael Nutter released Greenworks Philadelphia, his sustainability plan for making Philadelphia America’s greenest city, which intends to swell the tree count by 300,000 by 2015. Plant One Million is receiving the time and talent of residents in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties, too.

New Jersey and Delaware will join Pennsylvania by planting 700,000 trees. Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Mercer and Salem counties will lead The Garden State, with Kent, New Castle and Sussex counties beautifying The First State.

“Our partners and funding sources are increasing,” Jaffe, who noted that PHS oversaw the installation of 20,000 trees along streets, parks, schools and other public lands and 70,000 more in riparian areas to protect streams and rivers from ’04 through last year, said.