A century ago, Denver Mayor Robert Speer handed out 110,000 trees to residents, created a city forester position and developed tree-lined parkways in an effort to change the city’s brown landscape into an urban forest.
Now Speer’s trees are reaching the end of their life span, and only 6 percent of the city is shaded – significantly less than the national average of 26 percent for urban areas.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper wants to change that by planting 1 million trees over the next 20 years.
That comes to 137 trees being planted every day – 50,000 new trees every year.
“It’s a question, like anything, of who, where and when,” Hickenlooper said about the proposal announced in July as part of his Greenprint Denver plan.
“Right now we’re trying to flesh it out,” he said.
“We’re putting together – just like we did on the campaign to end homelessness – a commission to look at it and see how we can take it on,” Hickenlooper said.
A committee – including representatives from Xcel Energy, Denver Water and nonprofit organizations – has met and hopes to roll out the campaign by Earth Day next year.
Hickenlooper said he has been trying to get surrounding cities involved.
Trees could be sent home with schoolchildren and planted in parks, along streets and in the city’s fire-damaged watersheds.
“It’s doable,” said Keith Wood, community forester with the Colorado State Forest Service. “Just putting in 1 million trees can be done. But the trees have to be properly selected and properly planted.”
Denver’s campaign is part of a national initiative to address the declining tree cover in urban areas since the 1970s, according to American Forests, a Washington, D.C., conservation group.
Other cities also have taken up tree-planting campaigns. Sacramento, Calif., wants to plant 4 million trees, and Los Angeles is planting 1 million trees.
Los Angeles estimates its program will cost $70 million.
The cost of Denver’s program and how to pay for it are still being worked out, city officials say.
Urban trees reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality and provide shade that cools the city and leads to energy savings during the summer, according to American Forests.
If Denver were to increase its tree cover to 25 percent, it would save $5 million a year in energy costs and remove 1.8 million pounds of air pollution, according to the group’s 2001 study of the Front Range.
A 2003 Denver park study showed lower-income neighborhoods, such as Westwood, have less than 5 percent canopy cover.
Higher-income neighborhoods, such as Hilltop and Washington Park, had more than 15 percent cover.
“It’s pretty remarkable when you see the disparity,” said Patrick Hayes, director of the Park People, which plants more than 1,000 trees a year in poorer neighborhoods.
Hickenlooper wants to raise the metro area’s shade coverage to 18 percent in 20 years.
Adding trees to a semi-arid steppe ecosystem isn’t natural, but neither are concrete, asphalt or Kentucky bluegrass, said Dan Binkley, a professor in Colorado State University’s department of forestry, rangeland and watershed stewardship.
“The trees will use water,” he said. “It’s similar to the amount of water on lawns. But there is more of a cooling effect and more noise abatement.”
Hickenlooper said the more he learns about trees, the more impressed he becomes.
“It’s like a sunrise,” he said. “It’s so common and inexpensive. We don’t appreciate how powerful it is. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ll get this done.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
