Trees for Houston puts down new roots
For nearly 40 years Trees for Houston has been sinking tree roots into the soil of a city increasingly known for its concrete. More than 600,000 trees have sprung up in Houston because of the organization, which doesn’t combat urban development as much as it tries to complement it with a natural counterweight.
Just in time for Earth Day, Trees for Houston announced this week a new campus that will be built on 34th Street in Garden Oaks. The 1.5 acre complex gives Trees for Houston a new, permanent home. But it also creates an area for its efforts to grow. The new space will house Trees for Houston’s officeas well as a tree nursery and an education center. Settling roots into a new location, to hear executive director Barry Ward tell it, only increases Trees for Houston’s reach.
“There will be new efficiencies because of this new site,” Ward said, “that will allow us to get into more neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that may have more diffi
culty getting to us because of transportation or access. Our plan going forward is simple: If you want the trees, no matter what part of the city you’re in, we’ll get the trees to you.”
Trees for Houston has been a crucial force in Houston’s efforts to temper a hunger for development with green spaces that counter the effects of a sprawling metropolis.
“I look at our work since 1983,” Ward said, “and we used to plant hundreds of trees a year. Now it’s measured in tens of thousands. The numbers still aren’t enough for a city as fast-growing as this one. But we’re trying to increase access to resources. That’s part of our solution to helping balance the city’s growth.”
Getting outside
The new Trees for Houston Kinder Campus will occupy what is now a debris-cluttered lot, where a rental storage center used to sit. A building — gutted and covered in graffiti — was recently leveled, and construction is scheduled to begin on an interconnected set of new spaces: The Kyle and John Kirksey Sr. office building, the Bauer Education Center and a nursery bearing Chevron’s name. The campus came about with a series of donations by Taking Root, Trees for Houston’s capital campaign chaired by Sheila Condon and Larry Nettles. The Kinder Foundation — run by Kinder Morgan co-founder Rich Kinder and his wife Nancy — led efforts with a $3 million gift. The Kirkseys contributed $1 million, along with $750,000 from Chevron and $500,000 from the Ruth and Ted Bauer Family Foundation and the C.T. Bauer Foundation.
Nancy Kinder — president and CEO of the Kinder Foundation since its founding in 1997 — said the contribution from the foundation was a natural continuation of their long-running dedication to green space in Houston that includes significant support of Discovery Green, Bayou Greenways 2020 and the Memorial Park Conservancy as well as the revitalization of Buffalo Bayou Park.
“We try to get outdoors to a park every weekend,” she said. “For the past 20 years, we’ve embraced the idea of green space in Houston. When we started this foundation 20 years ago, we looked around at what foundations around the city were doing. And there was a void with green space.”
Trees for Houston has transformed outdoor spaces in the city, Kinder said — “not to mention how trees capture and store carbon, and reduce flooding.”
“We’re not Colorado,” Kinder said. “We don’t have mountains, we don’t really have lakes. We don’t have a lot of these things city people flock to. So why flock to Houston? We have interesting people, great restaurants and beautiful parks. And we think the parks are an important part of Houston’s attraction to young people.”
The new Trees for Houston campus falls between Oak Forest and Ella, a stretch being revitalized with new restaurants where buildings once sat vacant. Though located at the northwest corner of Loop 610, it remains fairly central for a sprawling city.
Plant today
Though Ward insisted “there’s always a good reason to plant trees and there’s no reason not to,” he does see the new space as a hub for doing what the organization does best: education and distribution, and doing both with foresight and care.
“The numbers of trees, they’re not growing as fast as the city is,” he said. “That’s just the reality of the world. And another reality is that some neighborhoods aren’t getting access to the same resources. We’re hoping this space gives us greater reach. We’re hoping it’s a solution to that problem, as well.”
Ward is hoping to “fast-forward the process of reforestation,” he said, part of Trees for Houston’s long game. “Things look scrubby,” he said. “And for your kids and grandkids, it looks great.”
He operates with an awareness of the need for urban development for the city’s growth. “We know it’s ridiculous to have every inch of space covered in trees,” Ward said. “But grasses and green space, trees and plants, they all increase the porosity of the soil.”
Trees for Houstonworks with schools and other organizations to help children to appreciate the value of trees in an urban setting.
Its offices are also crucial for recruiting and training volunteers: more than 1,000 volunteers have worked with the organization in planting trees around Houston. And Ward hopes to bring in more people willing to dedicate their time and energy.
The organization also tries to educate those who take over care for the trees it distributes. Ward points to the 2011 drought as a difficult time. “It was testimony about why you plant modestsized trees at the beginning and let them root properly. It’s a healthier process,” he said. “Do you plant a 5-gallon or a 65-gallon tree? The 5-gallon tree is more likely to take root, and in five years it’ll be the same size as the 65-gallon tree.”
Looking ahead
Trees and parks obviously won’t stop Houston’s flooding. “You can’t mitigate Harvey with trees,” Ward said. “Development is inevitable and healthy, we just want thoughtful development with a sense of place. And that involves not just thinking about today, but 10, 50, 100 years ahead. And good development mirrors planting trees: It’s not thinking about tomorrow, it’s thinking about your child’s lifetime.”
But green spaces offer area for excess water to go that pavement does not. “Trees are an inexpensive way to help with excessive rainfall,” Ward said.
Flooding reduction and carbon storage are two of the byproducts Trees for Houston hopes to nurture with its programs. The organization has ambitious goals: It seeks to place 100,000 trees into Houston soil in the next five years in parks and along streets where the trees can thrive.
Ward hopes the new campus will be able to meet that goal and increase demand, sending trees so far across the city that he can’t keep up with them.
“Most of the trees we plant or give away, I’ll never see again,” he said. “That’s what’s most beautiful about this work to me. I’ll be gone before it really yields its value. And that’s OK. There’s something satisfying about doing something that benefits others more than it does you. That’s what Trees for Houston is about.”