While all of our plantings are visually captivating, some play an even greater role. What happens when you remove trees from a city landscape? For one, things heat up. Called urban heat islands, these areas experience temperatures that can be up to 20 degrees higher than those with less asphalt and more trees. Making matters worse is the reality that these impervious concrete areas no longer can absorb water during rain events. Excessive heat and stormwater runoff are two major urban challenges that TheDCH are working hard to limit.

Success Stories: Acme and 16th Street

TheDCH is leading the First State in thinking about innovative, green based solutions to these problems. Why not utilize plants to do what they do best? Absorb water and cool things down! Because of the large space of impervious surface, parking lots are some of the biggest offenders of high volume storm water runoff. Working with this knowledge TheDCH partnered with the Acme grocery store in Trolley Square to establish a new tree trench, bioswale system, and rain garden that will effectively limit runoff and cool our city streets.

This project is not the first of its kind for TheDCH. In its desire to keep things cool and efficient, TheDCH and our project partners, DNREC’s Air Quality Management Section (AQM), Delaware Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Delaware Forest Service) and the City of Wilmington, obtained support from the Community Involvement Advisory Council to mitigate the impacts of Urban Heat Islands in Wilmington. The result was the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) report which used the current city tree inventory and GIS software technology to effectively determine the most strategic locations available to plant trees. The first project site identified was a parking lot on 16th Street owned by Bethel Temple Community Development Corporation.

In 2008 more than 2,500 square feet of parking lot on 16th Street owned by Bethel Temple Community Development Corporation, was excavated, and then planted with hardy native grasses and 29 large shade trees. Two long planting beds soak up and filter stormwater. The trees, along the perimeter as well as in the middle of the lot, are White Swamp Oak and Okame Cherry- both varieties known to mature quickly.