By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The City of Port Angeles this week launched the second year of the City Shade Street Tree Program, designed to beautify our town by planting free trees in residential neighborhoods.
Residents are now invited to apply online to request up to four free street trees. These trees will be strategically planted within the public right-of-way, typically between the sidewalk and curb, to expand each year the City’s tree canopy.
This year’s tree distribution and planting event will be held on October 19. Approximately 230 trees grown at the City Shade Nursery will be available, including the Scarlet Oak/American Red Oak, the Katsura Tree, and Garry Oak, a native species.
Will Habel with the Community & Economic Development office says the trees are specially selected to stay within a size that won’t tear up our sidewalks and other infrastructure, and the time sign up is now.
“You guys saw what happened downtown a few months ago. We’re trying to avoid that with these new trees. Everything will be available on our website. You can either just search “City of PA street trees”, or we’re putting out some stuff today that has the direct link, and those planning guides are on there, everything you need to know, what kind of trees are available. And if you’d like to help people plant trees, maybe not necessarily receive them, but if you want to help people, there’s a link and an application to be a volunteer for the program as well on our website.”
Planting the trees will be completed by the applicant, who may request assistance from City Shade Volunteers in advance. Weekly watering during the first two summers, pruning and leaf raking will also be the applicant’s responsibility.
Paul Forrest, the citizen behind the program and donator of the trees, says that because of a tragedy over the winter, this will be the last year that he will be able to provide these trees to the community.
“On January 13th, at the nursery, the temperature dropped during our freeze to 6 degrees. 70 percent of my trees died. But this was really heartbreaking. So, I have no more trees after this. I think the program should continue. people really like it a lot. It’s a good thing to do. Between Salem, Oregon and Portland, Oregon is a huge nursery industry, and you can just go buy the trees, which at the moment would cost the City 20,000 bucks to buy the trees. In the overall scheme of things, that’s not very much money. This is not as important as homelessness and drug addiction, a lot of other things, but it’s also not very expensive.”
Now is the time to apply to get as many as 4 free trees for your property. Those interested can submit an online application now through September 6 at cityofpa.us. City staff will work with applicants to identify areas that would benefit from additional trees and offer species appropriate for that location’s size and soil conditions.
This is also the time for community members to apply to become a volunteer with the program. The tree distribution and community planting event is scheduled for October 19.
(Photo: Katsura trees)