For over a decade, Kelly Cross and his husband Mateusz Różański have spent countless hours and over $180,000 of their own money to plant more than 800 trees in the Old Goucher neighborhood.

The work has helped transform this once ultra-urban environment into an acclaimed green oasis in the middle of Baltimore, making the area more walkable for residents, hospitable to businesses and cooler on hot summer days.

But in recent months, the project has suffered serious blows from Baltimore Public Works (DPW) and Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) contractors ripping up and damaging what Cross and Różański have worked so hard with their neighbors to grow.

“You have crews coming in that don’t care about the work that’s going on in the neighborhood here,” said Cross.

“They just see it as some annoying trees and plants they need to hack at to get their work done.”

Destroyed Bark, Compressed Soil

On a visit last week to survey the damage, The Brew spotted at least a dozen examples of it.

There were trees with gouged bark and broken branches. Construction vehicles and other equipment were parked close to or on top of the bioretention strip – bushes and plant life that the neighbors had established between the sidewalk and the street.

But some of the worst repercussions of sloppy workmanship can’t be seen from the street.

Instead, as contractors hastily dig through the soil for water main replacement and other projects, they sometimes cut through the large tap roots that are critical for tree health.

While the trees won’t die immediately, within a few years they will wither away.

Trees with bark damage might have a better chance of surviving. But in an already unforgiving urban environment, it doesn’t take much to kill a tree.

And while DPW crews laying down new water lines cause enough harm, Cross and Różański point to crews hired by BGE as the worst offenders.

While The Brew took pictures along Maryland Avenue, members of a BGE crew took issue with the photography, telling a reporter to stay away.

“It adds insult to injury when our tax and utility dollars are being paid to contractors who drive in from the suburbs with a terrible attitude,” Cross said.

Marco Merrick, chief of the Equity and Environmental Justice at DPW, responsible for “embedding equity” in city operations, did not respond to questions and a request for comment.

Award-winning Initiative

The couple’s project in the Old Goucher neighborhood has won national and international recognition as an innovative approach to creating a green environment in an urban space and combating climate change.

The green canopy and bioretention strips they’ve grown stretch across nearly 36 square blocks.

Before-and-after pictures show a completely changed urban environment, from the bare concrete and brick walls of a decade ago to a cool, shady urban forest now.

“We believed green infrastructure would mitigate crime. But over time we saw the benefits to heat mitigation and stormwater mitigation,” said Różański.

“We found there was a positive impact on life, walkability and the pedestrian economy of having mature trees there.”

The Old Goucher rowhouse where Cross and Różański live also plays host to a weather station from the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative, a group with $25 million in federal funding that’s trying to mitigate the impacts of urban heat and other effects of climate change in city environments.

Cross even hosted a delegation last year from the United Nations to talk about urban forestry practices.

The city and state have won millions in federal funding in recent years to improve the urban landscape.

But all of that will go to waste, Różański says, unless the city holds contractors accountable and puts together a tree protection plan common in other cities like New York and Washington D.C.

Needed: Tree Protection Plan

The tree plan for the District of Columbia outlines how construction crews should care for the environment,.

It includes such basic measures as not compacting soil directly around trees, not scraping off tree bark and erecting protective fencing around trees during construction.

That’s the kind of plan needed here, according to Cross and Różański

“Baltimore is one of the few major cities that still has no tree protection plan in place for major infrastructure work,” said Cross.

He noted that while Mayor Brandon Scott recently signed a bill to protect trees on land controlled by the Department of Recreation and Parks, there are few protections in place for mitigating damage to street trees.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Różański.

He noted that it takes at least 10 years to grow a tree that can start mitigating temperatures – and “we need even larger trees in an urban environment.”

“We have shown that there’s a way to do this. But we cannot win if the city doesn’t help neighborhoods trying to help the environment.”