One of the Linnean Avenue Zelkova trees, 30 years after it was planted.
by David Falk
When we moved to Forest Hills in 1964, Linnean Avenue was shaded on both sides by stately elms, creating a beautiful and cool thoroughfare for spring, summer and fall. Then Dutch elm disease arrived, and one by one our street elms withered and died, exceeding the ability of the District to plant replacements.
A final indignity was visited on our street on June 14, 1989, by a huge and rare downdraft microburst that flattened trees from the corner of Linnean Avenue and Garrison Street northward for a few miles into Montgomery County, breaking roofs, smashing cars and blocking streets. Our shady Linnean Avenue was no more.
As I recall, it was the Annie E. Casey Foundation that came to the rescue of a still financially strapped District with an offer to all our DC communities seeking to restore the tree-lined streetscape: If a community could raise one half of the cost of replacement trees and agreed to provide the labor to plant them, the foundation would pick up the remaining half of the cost and would physically deliver to the planting sites healthy, six- to 10-foot Zelkova trees. They explained that the Zelkova tree is in the same family of trees as elms, but is not susceptible to infection by the Dutch Elm Disease.
I applied on behalf of our street in 1991. I rang doorbells to raise the necessary money. On the appointed day, Valerio Cermeno, our gardener from Peru (where we had lived for 2 1/2 years) and I, shovels in hand, planted eight Zelkovas. Seven trees ran along the east side of Linnean Avenue, beginning at the neck of Rock Creek Park. [Broad Branch Park – ed.] The eighth tree was planted at 4915 Linnean Avenue.
Seven of the Zelkovas have thrived in the intervening 30 years. An eighth tree snapped near its roots, presumably by wind, and was eventually replaced by the DDOT’s Urban Forestry Division.
David and Judith Falk have lived in in their home in Forest Hills continuously since 1964 except for two years in Lima, Peru (1967-1969). A 1961 graduate of the Harvard Law School, David has worked at two DC law firms, worked in the federal government on international and domestic issues, served as a policy adviser to Maryland’s Governor Schaefer for over five years, and this summer, ended 29 years as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.
Marjorie Share says
David, I loved reading your piece about the Zelcovas. I admire them every time I go by..
That tree planting actually pre-dated Casey. Marjorie Rachlin and I somehow found Trees for the City, a small nonprofit that did exactly what you described. This effort predated DDOT Urban Forestry, as we know it today..
If a resident or group of resident donated $100, Trees for the City would match it. We went to the City and told them what we wanted to do and depending on location, they told us which type of tree to plant. Those were the days when all the trees on a block were the same. The Zelcova or Chinese Elm was their replacement for the American Elms being killed. Brandywine received Bradford Pears, Albemarle, Zelcovas; 30th ….
We found a grower in Maryland and hand-picked each tree. The planting with neighbors was the best part. (I hadn’t recalled that you planted all eight!) On other blocks, neighbors of all ages came out and dug holes and worked the burlapped root mass into each newly watered hole. All in all, we planted over 70 trees throughout the neighborhood. You played a major role. Thanks to you–and others–all 70+ trees minus one are still standing and keeping Forest Hills forested.