On a fall afternoon, Chris Billak, who is a civil engineer by day and a neighborhood association leader by night, marks the concrete along Greenmount Avenue in central Baltimore.
He is leading a tree planting project which involves removing slabs of pavement to create tree pits.
“It is nice to walk along a street in Baltimore that has a developed tree canopy,” said Billak. “I see a real need to make urban spaces places people want to live in, not just pass-throughs for suburban commuters.”
As part of the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA), Billak expects to plant more than 200 native trees along the Greenmount Avenue corridor by spring.
The $168,000 grant GRIA received is part of a larger $7.5 million initiative to plant 17,000 trees across the state. These funds also cover maintenance costs for the next two years, including watering and mulching to help the trees thrive.
Environmentalists say the planting will combat the "heat island" effect, where urban areas experience higher temperatures due to a lack of greenery. The city's goal is to increase its tree canopy to 40% by 2037. According to Billak, trees can lower street temperatures by 10 degrees in the summer.
Karin T. Burghardt, Ph.D., an entomologist and associate professor at the University of Maryland, said that while the benefits of the new trees are clear, it may take time to see the full effects.
"Trees are living, breathing organisms that will improve air quality and better human health," she said. "However, it could take up to a decade for these trees to significantly change the temperature of the city.”
For all the benefits trees provide, they can also be a pain. Some residents have raised concerns about removal of sidewalks for tree pits, calling it wasteful. Billak argued — removing concrete provides flood mitigation and reduces runoff.
Resistance to the project is rare, Billak added.
“I marked out Barclay street on Tuesday night, and I talked to a number of residents. One of the guys, his name was Rob. He was in his mid 70s. When I marked a tree pit in front of his house, he said,’ Well, I'm gonna enjoy this shade 50 years from now.’ And chuckled as he went in.”
