Hick's green dream on beam

Million-tree plan to start blooming with initial 7,000

Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 22, 2007 at midnight

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Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's plan to plant a million trees in 20 years is taking root.

After next month, the Tree by Tree initiative will be 993,000 seedlings shy of the mayor's goal.

Denver and 37 other cities, towns and organizations in the metro area will kick off Hickenlooper's ambitious initiative April 19 with "7,000 trees in 7 Days," a weeklong tree-planting event.

Tree enthusiasts hailed the occasion as an opportunity to promote green infrastructure.

"Trees have a remarkable benefit to an urban community," said Woody Nelson, a spokesman for the National Arbor Day Foundation.

"We've all known since we were small children that trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit pure oxygen," he said. "Fundamentally, trees help with pollution."

Denver has an overall tree-canopy cover of 10 percent. City arborist Pete Zoschg said most Eastern cities, which have more water than Denver, have a tree-canopy cover of up to 30 percent.

But "they've built cities in forests," said Mike Swanson, Denver's forestry supervisor.

"We had to create our own forest."

Hickenlooper said he launched the initiative last year, partly because trees slow climate change.

"At the same time, they provide shade," the mayor said. "So, whether you're parking on the street or whether you're in your home, you don't use your air conditioning, and that's a huge source of energy consumption."

In addition, Hickenlooper said, "trees are beautiful" and can "build civic engagement."

"Some 50 years from now, people will look back and say, 'Wow, those folks . . . had this great synergy. They really created more (together) than they would have (if) each had been working separately,' " the mayor said.

Hickenlooper's initiative is "the kind of thing everyone in every corner of the community can get behind," said Patrick Hayes, executive director of the Park People, a nonprofit that advocates for Denver's parks and urban forest.

"It's usually big, grand visions like that that really inspire public action," he said.

"We've definitely seen an increase in participation in our program this year."

Jeff Shoemaker, executive director of the Greenway Foundation, which works to preserve Denver's waterways, said his organization has offered to plant trees during their volunteer events.

"The one caveat that I always caution people on, when you have volunteers planting trees, is to do everything you can to make sure the right type of tree goes in the right place," he said.

"The reality of tree planting is it looks great when it goes in the ground, but if it's not done right or maintained properly, trees die."

7,000 trees in 7 days

• A weeklong tree-planting event in the metro area next month will kick off Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's million-tree initiative.

For more information, go to green printdenver.org

• The Denver Public Library is also offering a series of environmental programs starting next week. To view a listing of events, go to denver library.org/fresh

chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5099

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