Montgomery County & Village Celebrate Arbor Day-Village Tree City USA for 25th Year

Montgomery County & Village Celebrate Arbor Day-Village Tree City USA for 25th Year

Arbor Day, held annually each spring is the most celebrated time of the year in Montgomery County and Montgomery Village Maryland. It is that time when the Cherry Blossom festival is held, Earth Day and Green Week occur and the Tree City USA designated jurisdictions hold Arbor Day events. 

The Arbor Day Foundation conducts the Tree City USA program in conjunction with the National Association of State Foresters. The award is designed to recognize communities that effectively managed their public tree resources.. The Arbor Day Foundation is the largest non-profit conservation and education organization dedicated to the planting trees with over one million members, supports and valued partners.  Its mission statement is “We inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees”. Montgomery Village has been designated a USA Tree City for the past 25 years as announced in Montgomery Village Patch this week.

The annual Arbor Day this year was celebrated in conjunction with the Friends of Whetstone Lake (FOWL) spring Rack-the-Lake program held on Saturday April 20 and was also marked by planting a tree adjacent to the North Creek Community Center prior to the MVF Board Meeting on April 25th.

Trees a Symbol of Community Identity Clarence Kettler developer of Montgomery Village was a pioneer and recognized advocate of making trees a key element and symbol of the community’s identity. In the beginning the land was mostly farmland with very few trees. In his book, Montgomery Village, A New Town, Bill Hurley wrote, “Kettler Brothers purchased the first tree-moving machine used on the East Coast to dig up and transport truckloads of trees for planting on both sides of major roads and selected locations in the median strip. We put our machine to work, digging holes to plant pin oaks all along the Avenue, in Whetstone, Stedwick and Maryland Place.  Day after day, the trucks rolled up and down the road, and trees sprouted like an instant forest…Over the years, in several locations within the Village, Kettler planted tree farms, growing white pines for ultimate planting throughout the communities.”

Montgomery Village is a community of 40,000 residents located on 6.5 square miles (4,225 acres) of land. The residents live in 12,000 dwelling units located in 25 residential communities.  Each of the four rental apartments, 11 condominium and 10 homes corporation communities, as well as the commercial office building, shopping centers, and golf course (147 acres) owners, are responsible for tree care, maintenance and preservation within their boundaries. The County’s public sector is responsible for an estimated 980 acres within the Village including the six Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland National Park & Planning Commission parklands and Montgomery County highway street trees. The Montgomery Village Foundation (MVF) owns 330 acres of park and recreation land, representing only 7.8% percent of the Village’s green space.

It’s Not About the Foundation The Village’s annual springtime tree celebration publicity gives the impression that the Montgomery Village Foundation and Montgomery Village are synonymous and operates a first class community tree care program. Not accurate, the general condition, care and upkeep of trees on the Foundation’s 330 acres are substantially below any expected or reasonable community standard.  There is a dramatic comparison between the treescapes of the “Jewels of Montgomery Village”, (Whetstone Park and Lake Whetstone), when compared with that of any of the Villages’ Condominium, Homes Corporation and Apartment communities or Commercial, Retail and Office sites. Link here and view the photo album: Trees of Montgomery Village comparing Foundations tree care with the rest of the Village.

County Maintenance Responsibility The Maryland Roadway Tree law is carried out by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation, Division of Highway Services. It has the responsibility to trim, remove deadwood, diseased and structural defective branches as well remove and replace dead and dying trees. Trees are trimmed to maintain adequate clearance for vehicles and pedestrians 12 to 14 feet over the road and 8 feet over sidewalks.  Branches obscuring traffic signals, stop and other traffic control devices are removed.  Currently the county inspects and schedules all highway tree maintenance, removal and replacement every 3 years, upon request and after weather or safety emergencies that causes damage or disruptions.

Care and Maintenance of Urban Street Trees growing within cities and towns form an urban forest. With its infrastructure of streets, sidewalks, curbs, buried utilities, overhead power lines, and buildings; this urban environment places tremendous stresses on trees. With proper care, trees become assets that grow in value over time. Without care, tree value declines, eventually becoming a liability to the community. For over a half of century the limited County and State tree maintenance, care and tree management programs by any measurement or observation are shown to be inadequate. A substantially portion of the public trees planted along the utility right of ways, State and County highway and streets and parklands during the growth period since 1950 is no long healthy or viable and is vulnerable to any wind or storm conditions.

Montgomery County Direct Services to Montgomery Village such as County Street and Sidewalk upkeep and Street Tree maintenance have been below acceptable standards. Repairs, replacement and resurfacing and Street Tree maintenance, removal, replacement and stump removal have diminished, delayed and deteriorated. Street Tree maintenance and replacement is a year and half behind, stump removal service has been postponed indefinitely.

Link here to view the photo Art H's photo album: Montgomery County Street Trees in Montgomery Village

This is a first series of Blog posts on Trees, Montgomery County, Pepco and Public Policy, how it works or not.