Tree City for 31 Years, 95 New Trees Planted in Stow

Employees of the city’s are celebrating Stow’s 31st year of being recognized as a Tree City USA community by planting 95 “free” trees at Steels Corners Road and S.R. 8.

And these aren’t just saplings being planted.

Motorists will see city workers installing a mixture of pine and oak trees that are up to 10 feet tall.

Sue Mottl, the city’s landscape arborist, said those tree varieties were chosen because of their suitablity for growing conditions in that area.

“They were selected because they show tolerance to (road) salt and the windy conditions there. You can’t plant just any tree out there and expect it to live,” she said.

The city’s purchase of the trees, which cost about $8,000, is being funded by a grant received last year through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Gateway Landscaping Program.

Mottl’s original intention was to buy and plant the trees last fall, but ODOT had not yet signed off on the completion of its multi-year project to widen and reconstruct Steels Corners Road and the S.R. 8 interchange ramps.

This is the second grant Stow has received to plant trees along S.R. 8, said Mottl. In 2008, 11 trees were planted at the Steels Corners Road ramp exiting southbound from S.R. 8, while 22 trees were planted at the Graham Road ramp traveling northbound onto S.R. 8.

The trees being planted starting this week will enhance the remaining three ramp areas at Steels Corners Road.

“As the existing and newly planted trees grow, they will add aesthetic value, help muffle traffic noise, reduce wind, and reduce the heat-island affect in the area by providing cooling in the hot summer sun,” said Mottl. “Trees just make it more welcoming.”

While the process of applying for a Gateway Landscaping Program grant is time-consuming, Mottl said it’s worth it because “grants are few and far between.”

According to ODOT’s website, the Gateway program provides funding for the purchase of trees, shrubs, mulch, soil amendments and other landscaping materials to establish corridor enhancements along state highway rights-of-way. 

Not funded are labor, equipment rental, landscape design or maintenance costs. That’s where the city’s Urban Forestry Department comes in.

“We’re responsible for planting them and maintaining them,” Mottl explained. “We have to mow around them, and anything newly planted we put water bags around, then go out and water once weekly. We have not lost any (trees) yet.”

It’s that type of attention to detail that has earned Stow its 31st Tree City USA designation from the non-profit Arbor Day Foundation, in cooperation with the National Association of State Foresters and the USDA Forest Service.

Mottl said the city has to reapply for the designation every year.

“We do it, basically, to provide the residents with a well-managed urban forest,” said Mottl. “There are some communities that throw a tree in and walk away. Earning this designation holds us in higher esteem. Not only do we plant trees, but we also maintain them.”

To earn the title, a community must have a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, a comprehensive community forestry program and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

“We commend Stow’s elected officials, volunteers and its citizens for providing vital care for its urban forest,” John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation, said in a press release.

“Trees provide numerous environmental, economical and health benefits to millions of people each day, and we applaud communities that make planting and caring for trees a top priority,” he said.