VNLA Member Spotlight on CASEY TREES

Estimated to support approximately 50 percent tree canopy in 1950, DC’s canopy in 2001 declined to just over 35 percent. A Washington Post article chronicling this decline inspired Betty Brown Casey, a longtime area resident, to establish Casey Trees with the mission “To restore, enhance, and protect the tree canopy of the nation’s capital.”

Since our official establishment in 2002, we approach fulfilling our mission in numerous ways. For example, we plant trees, engage thousands of volunteers of all ages in tree planting and care, provide year-round continuing education courses, monitor the city’s tree canopy, develop interactive online tree tools and work with elected officials, developers, and community groups to protect and care for existing trees and to encourage the addition of new ones.

Photo 1: Pre-pandemic, a typical volunteer planting on Saturday mornings brings the community together for an exciting, busy day of tree planting.

Casey Trees has diligently worked towards attaining the Washington DC’s goal of 40 percent canopy by 2032; planted over 30,000 trees; educated thousands of residents about the importance of urban tree canopy; supported the tree planting efforts of the DC Government, the National Parks Service, community groups and residents alike; inventoried and tracked the District’s tree resources to promote continued public funding for DC’s trees; advocated for green, tree-friendly development and similar pursuits. While the activities vary, all our programs work together to provide greater shade, cooler air, cleaner water, citizen engagement, and sustainable growth to the neighborhoods where we live and work.

We are undoubtedly the only urban forestry nonprofit retreeing the District, and we’re lucky to be headquartered in beautiful Brookland in Northeast DC. The people who execute our mission are in the District, but where do the trees come from? We are extraordinarily proud to finally say that the majority of the new trees planted throughout the District are from the Casey Tree Farm in Berryville, Virginia!

Casey Tree Farm is a 730-acre tract located in Clarke County, Virginia. Locally known as Springsbury Farm, our organization was gifted the land and its structures in 2008 to enhance our mission through research, collaboration, and environmental stewardship. We have dedicated 100 acres of that land to sustainable tree production using techniques that prioritize long-term soil health and productivity while safeguarding the overall environment. In March 2011, we started our nursery, allowing us to grow tree species that are not readily available commercially while applying innovative growing and irrigating techniques. Our vision is to produce sustainably grown, high-quality trees to help communities meet their tree canopy goals.

The farm has allowed Casey Trees to plant more trees than in the past when plants were simply bought from other tree farms, but more than that, it gives the organization increased flexibility in choosing the type, quantity, quality, and timing of trees for its needs. We focus on the species needed most, urban-friendly trees like red maple, swamp white oak, black gum, sweetbay magnolia, and American beech. We also grow underused but lovely native trees such as the scarlet and overcup oaks, the Kentucky coffee tree, and the American hornbeam and hophornbeam. Our Farm team works hard to raise roughly 12,000 trees from sapling to sturdy transplant. More than 3,000 are ready for planting each year when they make the 65-mile journey east for a new life in city parks, schools, neighborhoods, and other places in all eight wards of DC.

Photo 2: Our crew plants throughout DC, including at iconic locations like the grounds of the Washington Monument.

So that is where the trees come from, but how do we plant over 5,000 trees a year with a Tree Operations crew of just 15 people? We involve the community! Since they’re the ones that will ultimately care for and enjoy the trees, getting neighbors, church groups, families, businesses, and everyone in between involved at the start is crucial. Our volunteers and community are the backbones of what we do. Our flagship Community Tree Planting program brings trees to where they are actively needed and wanted. We take great joy in working with community organizers to plant trees to make their neighborhoods more welcoming — and help them address concerns unique to their sites such as flooding, noise pollution, and lack of shade.

But restoring, enhancing, and protecting a city’s city tree canopy is much more than planting. We also work with community members and city partners to inventory every tree in the city through our Park Inventory Program. Our volunteer and trained citizen sciences are critical parts of collecting all kinds of data and information about our city’s trees. We use all this gathered information to manage our community forest and prioritize tree maintenance needs.

But we can’t reach our goals by planting, inventorying, or pruning trees alone. Many of our streets are lined with beautiful mature trees, trees that have taken 30 or more years to reach their full potential of absorbing stormwater, shading our homes and sidewalks, creating a habitat for birds, insects, and squirrels, and providing us with countless other benefits. Despite all these benefits, we do live in a city, and that comes with its challenges. One of the most significant challenges trees face is development. Our certified tree advocates tackle the mission from the top down.

ABOVE – Photo 3: We’re thankful for a dedicated, hardworking Farm crew, but every once in a while, it’s fun to bring volunteers out and introduce them to tree care at our Farm. BELOW – Photo 4: Our Nursery Manager, Todd Woodfield (right) instructs a volunteer on proper tree staking methods.

They’re out there testifying, submitting public comments, and speaking on behalf of the trees.

All of that vigorous volunteer and staff activity occurs in a typical year, which this past year was anything but. We’ve had to adapt how we fulfill our mission to restore, enhance, and protect amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In the interest of safety, we canceled all our volunteer events and relied solely on staff and crew to fill the gaps normally occupied by our many generous volunteers.

Photo 5: We’re proud to have 100 acres dedicated to sustainable tree production at our Farm in Berryville, VA. The majority of trees cultivated here are destined to be planted throughout Washington, DC.

Many hands make light work and while we don’t have nearly as many hands as we did with Team Leaders, Group Volunteers, and everyday volunteers, we certainly have more help! Regardless, we are looking forward to expanding our work with volunteers and our expanded crew in the coming seasons. We’ve learned a lot this year. We’ve all adjusted how we work, and it’s been truly inspiring how our crew continued to work toward our mission while keeping our community and each other safe. When we said many hands make light work, we weren’t kidding! Last year we planted over 4,440 trees. This past year? Thanks to shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, necessary safety protocols, and additional pandemic logistical limitations, we’ve planted 2,418 trees. We’re incredibly proud of that number — but it goes to show what an impact our volunteers make.

Planting wasn’t the only area that was affected by the pandemic. Some positives include launching ordering from the Casey Tree Farm (as mentioned above) and conducting our annual Tree Survival Study to analyze mortality rates in our planted trees to inform our processes moving forward. Some of our programming simply moved. Our summer camps that engage District youth and help excite the next generation of tree stewards went online, although we could publish our Junior Urban Forester Workbook. This gave countless metropolitan Washington kids the chance to explore trees near them. We didn’t just launch programs for kids though – we also moved our classes and workshops online with our virtual learning platform Casey Trees Remote.

While times are challenging, the energy and ideas of Casey Trees and our city remain as creative and strong as ever. 2020 was anything but expected and the remainder of 2021 is still uncertain. One thing that is certain? The work we do is still vital to trees, and there is so much more to be done! •