The National Park Service is gearing up to remove nearly 160 cherry trees in Washington, DC, in an effort to repair the city’s deteriorating seawalls, the agency announced Wednesday.
The $113 million, three-year project is set to begin in late spring and early summer around the Tidal Basin and along the Potomac River through West Potomac Park, after the National Cherry Blossom Festival draws crowds to celebrate the district’s iconic blooms.
Roughly 300 trees are scheduled for removal in the construction zones. More than 450 trees, including 274 cherry trees, will be replanted in the area when the project is finished, the NPS said in a statement.
“One important thing to remember is yes, we’re taking down 300 trees to make this improvement, but we’re also replanting,” said Mike Litterst, a spokesperson for the National Mall and Memorial Parks. “And there will be an enormous increase in the number of trees that are out there.”
Rising sea levels and warming temperatures threaten the thousands of cherry trees in Washington, DC. Not only have the trees blossomed early in recent years, but frequent flooding and a decaying seawall around the Tidal Basin have submerged the trees’ roots, disrupting the oxygen flow that requires them to blossom.
“Trees are not equipped to handle that much water coming in,” Litterst told CNN. “Unfortunately, the only way to fix the problem is to make the sea walls higher to accommodate for expected sea level rise in the next 100 years.”
To do so, they would need to remove trees like “Stumpy,” a haggard-looking but beloved cherry tree on the south side of the Tidal Basin. Construction around the Tidal Basin will remove about 140 cherry trees between the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.
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