Vacant lots becoming home to majestic trees, which help air quality
By Corey Williams, Associated Press
DETROIT — Arborists are turning vacant land on Detroit’s eastside into a small urban forest — not of elms, oaks and red maples indigenous to the city but giant sequoias, the world’s largest trees that can live for thousands of years.
The project on four lots could improve air quality and help preserve the trees that are native to California’s Sierra Nevada, where they are threatened by ever-hotter wildfires.
Detroit is the pilot city for the Giant Sequoia Filter Forest. The nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive donated dozens of sequoia saplings to be planted by staff and volunteers from Arboretum Detroit, another nonprofit, as a way to mark Earth Day on April 22.
Co-founder David Milarch says Archangel also plans to plant sequoias in Los Angeles; Oakland, Calif.; and London.
What are they?
The massive conifers can grow to more than 300 feet tall with a more than 30-foot circumference at the base. They can live for more than 3,000 years.
“Here’s a tree that is bigger than your house when it’s mature, taller than your buildings, and lives longer than you can comprehend,” said Andrew “Birch” Kemp, Arboretum Detroit’s executive director.
The sequoias will eventually provide a full canopy that protects everything beneath, he said.
“It may be sad to call these .5- and 1-acre treescapes forests,” Kemp said. “We are expanding on this and shading our neighborhood in the only way possible, planting lots of trees.”
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