The roots of West Palm’s tree predicament: Storms, old age and tight budgets

March 08-- Mar. 8--WEST PALM BEACH -- West Palm Beach is taking stock of its trees, inventorying every one rooted in city land.

The Parks and Recreation Department and Mayor's Office of Sustainability have a mission to increase the city's shade canopy, through plantings, maintenance and regulation, and one step toward that goal is to make a computerized map of all trees in parks and public parkways (the grassy strips between sidewalk and street), medians and other city-owned land. Having that inventory will help tell who's responsible for maintenance, whether the city or a developer, and help identify what kinds of trees are needed where.

It's a big job in a city of 58 square miles, one that officials say could take years and be accomplished only with the help of summer interns and college horticulture students.

Meanwhile, though, try getting a tree replaced on your street, gripes Douglas Taylor, of 317 Cordova Road. By Taylor's count, the 18 blocks of the historic El Cid neighborhood alone, one of the city's leafiest neighborhoods, are missing at least 100 trees.

"If we're down 100 trees, that tells me we're thousands and thousands of trees short in the city and they just haven't been replaced, he said.

That, in a city where Mayor Jeri Muoio makes frequent mentions of her desire to make the city more tree-shaded and attractive for pedestrians, bike riders and sidewalk cafes.

At a work session for the mayor and commissioners Feb. 19, Penni Redford, manager of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability, outlined many programs the city has instituted to manage and increase tree coverage, including thousands of saplings given to residents for planting in their yards. But she also acknowledged that a $1 million fund for large tree installation downtown and in the Northwest neighborhoods, as well as a $58,000 tree replacement fund in the Parks budget have gone unfunded for several years.

"We're going to be coming back and asking for a few things," Redford said.

The city chain-sawed its budget during the Great Recession. The tree funds never grew back.

Meanwhile close brushes with hurricanes and other wind storms, not to mention the usual aging and disease, thinned the canopy.

If you want to plant a replacement tree yourself, on a neighborhood parkway, you need a city permit, Taylor said. "Do you have any idea how difficult that is? It's taken me a year."

Ask the city to replace it and that comes with a whole other set of frustrations, Taylor has learned.

"When you press people, on the side, they tell you they don't have the staffing to do this now," he said. "They try and do what they can but they fired all the people that did the tree planting and sold off all the equipment, and you need equipment to move any sizable tree around."

At one point, when he nagged to get action, the city borrowed cemetery workers to get the job done, he said. "So they're literally robbing from the graveyard to plant trees."

A few steps from his block, a sidewalk was made with cutaways to allow room for trees. In one spot it's clear there hasn't been a tree for years. In another, there's a weedy lump in the ground.

"When a tree gets blown down, they bring in a chain saw, cut it off at the stump and walk away," Taylor said.

City spokeswoman Kathleen Walter said change is coming.

"As a city, we definitely want to plant more trees, and we're happy to know residents want more. Right now, we are in the process of transitioning toward a data-driven approach for tree planting based on tree canopy coverage and availability of city funds," she said. That approach includes the ongoing inventory.

Under a deal through Douglas' work with city Landscape Planner Ray Caranci, Parks Director Leah Rockwell and others, El Cid residents will cover half the cost in their neighborhood through voluntary donations to their neighborhood association.

That's a pilot program the city hopes to expand elsewhere, for parkways in areas that already have higher than average tree canopy coverage and, therefore, may not otherwise rank high on the city's priority list for planting, spokeswoman Walter said.

Steve Simpson, president of the El Cid Neighborhood Association, said Friday that Taylor has been knocking himself out, "going up against the bureaucracy to get somewhere he could have assistance or even for us to do it ourselves. "We couldn't even pay for it and get it done," said Simpson. Now they will be able to, he hopes.

"It's been pretty frustrating," Simpson said, dismissing the city's professed efforts to grow its tree canopy. "On the battlefield, we're not seeing it."

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