Putting Trees Before the Baltimore Grand Prix

Below is a guest blog post by Baltimore resident Dave Troy, who started a petition to save more than one hundred trees from the Baltimore Grand Prix chopping block.

Tuesday morning, I had stopped to get my morning coffee when I received an email from a stunned friend: trees had been cut down on Pratt Street, Baltimore’s main boulevard. He asked me, could I stop it?

My wife and I hopped on our bikes and located the scene. Using our iPhones, we photographed three fresh stumps, a couple of which were at least 36 inches in circumference. We counted the rings on one: 41 years old. We were shocked, and wondered what to do next.

In four weeks, Baltimore will be the site of a Grand Prix race, which organizers have speculated will bring 100,000 people to the city and up to $70 million to the local economy. The race has had an impact on downtown for the last year, disrupting traffic flows and causing gridlock.

What they hadn’t talked about was the trees.

Last Fall, race organizers had talked about “uprooting and replanting” some trees, going so far as to tell one community group that the trees would be kept on a farm and replanted after the race – so pastoral, so humane sounding. So clearly wrong-headed.

When the issue left the public eye last December, it wasn’t raised further. Sure, there had been “re-greening” plans, but no one suspected that healthy trees would need to be cleared. Even people most familiar with the city’s tree plans were shocked and outraged at this sudden and seemingly unnecessary removal of healthy trees.

We posted our “stump photos” to Facebook. Within minutes, the photos had dozens of comments from outraged Baltimoreans. One suggested that we setup a petition, and another suggested Change.org.

Within minutes, we had posted our petition and began collecting hundreds of signatures. After two days, our petition now has over 1,300 signatures. I was on the evening news two nights in a row.

And we’ve opened a dialog with the City, the race organizers, and the Baltimore Sun in an effort to assess the situation, determine any wrongdoing, and stop the destruction of any more trees. We’re seeking an injunction in Baltimore City Circuit Court so work can be stopped while this is sorted out.

I’m just a regular guy – a software entrepreneur with a pretty good Twitter and Facebook network, and I thought I could help. I care about trees. My wife’s father was an arborist. He would have wanted us to take up this cause, and it’s the right thing to do.

While a Grand Prix race is not my kind of thing and I will not attend, we are willing to accept that events like this can sometimes help out a local economy.

But what we can’t accept is the cutting down of healthy, mature trees, and the notion that they can be replaced with any number of two inch saplings. In pots. Yes, in fact some of the trees will be replaced by trees in planters, so they can be moved for future races.

We also can’t sit by and let things happen outside of the rule of law. Article 7 section 53-5 of the City Code states that any tree to be removed must be clearly marked with a notice. This was not done, and thanks to our petition, city officials have admitted that the contractor “jumped the gun” and have promised to issue citations.

And we think there’s a bigger story here. What will the still unreleased memorandum of understanding between the City’s Office of Sustainability and Baltimore Racing Development reveal? Will BRD have enough money to follow through on the plan they have agreed to? What happens if the race is a flop and BRD goes bankrupt?

We wish them the best, but a bad outcome is a very real possibility, and we’re thankful that Change.org was able to help us demand accountability from our Mayor and our other elected officials that negotiated this event.

And we’re hoping that not even one more healthy tree will be needlessly cut. We’ll keep you posted.

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