"We follow an arborist around D.C. to find out why it’s so hard to plant urban trees."

"Gaby Elliott drives down the street scanning front yards for an elusive commodity: space for a tree to grow.

Sidewalks meld into buildings — little room for life. But somehow, in a tiny box cut into the concrete landscape, a massive tree trunk rises about 60 feet into the air.

“Yeah, you’re like, ‘Where is the root system?’” Elliott bursts out. “That’s probably a willow oak. And they’re magnificent. The resiliency of plants … it just really blows my mind.”

In a forest, a large tree like this would be part of a sprawling scaffold supporting thousands of species from floor to canopy, she notes, an ecosystem far removed from the paved-over terrain out the car window."

Bishop Sand reports for the Washington Post July 6, 2024. [2]