The Vision
Imagine Baltimore with hundreds of thousands of additional trees shading its streets, parks, and private landscapes. Lush lindens, majestic oaks, classic plane trees. It would be a city transformed.
The non-profit Baltimore Tree Trust (BTT) has been created to serve as an umbrella and leader to mobilize citizens and institutions around this ambitious civic goal: Transform Baltimore with Trees! The Tree Trust is dedicated to expanding the urban forest and restoring the tree canopy in the Baltimore region through better tree care and large scale tree plantings.
The Challenge
Baltimore's urban tree canopy has declined by a third in recent decades, to 25% of overall land mass. It should be at 40 percent. To create a sustainable, greener economy, the Baltimore Tree Trust will educate the public and promote trees as green infrastructure essential to public health, cleaner air, economic development (including green jobs), energy savings, storm water mitigation, wildlife habitat, and a more beautiful, bikable/walkable region. Every $1 spent on trees yields $5 to $6 in these benefits. As neighborhoods and business districts long bereft of trees become green, the lusher canopy will visibly improve the quality and health of daily life.
Baltimore's urban forest has 2.6 million trees, and one quarter of those are in poor shape, dead, or dying, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The City's TreeBaltimore Initiative calls for 750,000 new trees by 2040. Presently, about 10,000 trees are planted here annually. To achieve the 40 percent canopy goal, Baltimore must plant and care for an additional 15,000 new trees a year. Half of those trees will have to be planted on private property.
The Plan
State and local governments, as well as regional non-profits, have programs to increase the tree canopy. The BTT will offer a much larger platform for these initiatives by marketing additional programs, educating and mobilizing residents and institutions, creating partnerships and scale, and raising capital regionally. Baltimore will join more than 100 major cities (e.g., New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia) whose tree groups have created new constituencies and are rebuilding their urban forests. 