Worth A Look: The Philly Tree Plan

First, the good news: If you’re reading this, you’ve outlived the generation of Philadelphians who believed that trees were gross and more trouble than they’re worth. (Trust us, this was definitely a thing.) The not great and surprising-until-you-think-about it news: Philadelphia lost over 1,000 football fields worth of tree cover between 2008 and 2018. Also, Philly’s spread of trees is uneven: Lower-wealth neighborhoods have a decidedly lower number of trees per block. 

But a large group of city agencies and tree wonks now have a plan to remedy this. 

If all of this is engaging your tree lovin’ brain, you’re gonna love the Philly Tree Plan, a 128-page PDF that’s the result of a pretty amazing coalition of city agencies, partner institutions, consulting groups and citizens like you and me. Even the last half of that sentence is kind of surprising; in a timeline where confidence in our city government could well be at a generational low, paging through the Philly Tree Plan reminds you that this is, after all, a place where so many good people are quietly generating a churn for the better every day. 

What’s in it? A plan, for sure: 

But there’s a lot more than that in the report. There’s the deepest dive you’re likely to come across on the present state of trees in Philly, infographics, and detailed policy and thinking behind each plank of the allied Philly plan. Perhaps most of all, there’s also a detailed implementation plan that calls for a City Forester and supporting staff to mind the very large project of upping Philly’s tree game