DENVER — The Denver Office of the City Forester is looking for people to sign up for its free tree-planting program called Be a Smart Ash.
The program not only beautifies neighborhoods and helps fight rising temperatures but also combats the threat of the emerald ash borer.
“We're really excited to get more trees in front of people's homes and do that at no cost to the homeowner,” said Hannah Romano, forestry program coordinator for the City of Denver. “It’s really important to get trees in the city to help reduce things like heat island effect and high summer temperatures. It really helps with energy costs and then beautifies our area.”
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Forestry Supervisor Doug Schoch, who has been with Denver Forestry since 2000, agrees that trees provide more benefits than meets the eye.
“People want to be in green spaces. They want to interact with nature,” said Schoch. “They want to spend time in parks with their families and trees. They reduce stormwater runoff for cities. They sequester carbon. There's studies that show that they reduce crime rates. They improve mental health.”
Still, a blossoming urban canopy is not the main reason for the Be a Smart Ash program. The program, and its name, came as a preemptive way to fight the spread of the emerald ash borer.
The insect, which ravaged environments throughout the Midwest and East Coast, has been spotted in areas around Colorado.
“It is starting to surround the city,” said Romano. “So we're trying to be as prepared as we can be for when it does reach Denver itself.”
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The insect eats only ash trees, so the City of Denver has been trying to diversify the types of trees throughout the city. When the program started in 2016, one in six trees in Denver were ash trees.
“Insects and diseases are species and host specific,” explained Schoch. “If you have a very diverse canopy and an insect comes in, maybe you're going to lose 10% of your canopy, but you're not going to lose 20, 30, 40% of your canopy.”
Be a Smart Ash will deliver and plant trees in the public rights of way in front of residential homes throughout Denver. Applicants for the program can request certain attributes for delivered trees, but the exact type of tree will be up to city officials. Ash trees, however, will not be among the trees delivered to people’s homes.
“We try to plant a really diverse group of species,” said Romano. “Anything from large canopies that are going to provide a lot of shade to smaller ornamentals that will do better under overhead power lines.”
If you would like to see if the right of way in front of your home qualifies for the Be a Smart Ash program or if you would like to apply for the program,you can check out their website here.
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