Local Food Needs Drive Tree Planting
Elizabeth Merritt reporting. Elguario Arboristio, director of the Casey Tree Foundation of Washington, DC, today announced a new initiative in collaboration with the District of Columbia Urban Forestry Administration. Starting in 2020, seventy-five percent of all street plantings, and one hundred percent of the plantings in residential neighborhoods, will be productive fruit and nut-bearing trees rather than the traditional ornamentals.
“We have an acute need for additional local food production” says District mayor Arianna MacLeroy. “Apples, pecans, walnuts, peach trees—these can fulfill the traditional mission of providing shade, beautifying the city and purifying the air, while also helping feed our people.” It will be legal for anyone to harvest from the trees, but the city will also organize periodic harvests, with the crops going to feed the homeless.
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