By Shelley Dekker
Do you love clean & cool air, birds, and beneficial insects? Help maintain our trees!
We are fortunate to have a fairly healthy tree canopy in Trinity Park, but it takes ongoing effort to replace the many old trees that continue to be taken down due to age, as well as to maintain the newly planted and maturing trees.
It is easier than you might think to get involved with helping our trees:
- You can request a new tree to be planted in the City-owned right-of-way in front of or beside your house. Simply google “City of Durham Urban Forestry,” go to their website, and click on the link to the “Tree Request Form.” The City will contact you about planting a new tree adjacent to your property. Tree planting takes place in the fall and winter months.
- You can become a Durham Tree Keeper after taking a short workshop to learn how to prune City trees and keep our sidewalks clear. Scott Schuett, a neighbor on Gregson Street, has been a Tree Keeper for five years. He used to be one of a few Tree Keepers in the neighborhood, but now he is the only one, and he would love some assistance! Scott says, “It’s best to start out with the four sides of a city block and make 1-3 rounds each year. If this seems easy and doable, you can always add more blocks!” Scott has been primarily focusing his work along Gregson, Watts, Buchanan, Markham, and the 900 block of Minerva. If you are interested in becoming a Tree Keeper, contact Dawn Keyser at Keep Durham Beautiful (dawn@keepdurhambeautiful.org). It would be great to have a full crew of Trinity Park Tree Keepers!
- You can also help immensely by simply maintaining your own property. If you live on an alley, help the Solid Waste workers by keeping the trees and shrubbery along your alley cut back. Walk along the sidewalks by your house and make sure your trees, shrubs, and other plantings do not block the way.
Part of the mission of The Trinity Park Foundation is to encourage tree planting within our neighborhood. We have worked directly with the City over the years to fund the planting of new City-owned trees along our sidewalks. We are now looking into establishing a matching grant program for residents to plant shade trees in front of or beside their homes. We also hope to create a “Trinity Park Tree Trail” to highlight the incredible diversity of trees within our urban neighborhood.
If you have ANY tree-related questions, please email trinityparkfoundation@gmail.com. Thank you for caring for our trees!
