Other Ohio Cities Are Planting Street Trees. Troy Has the Tools To Do the Same.

Vol. III, No. 276 - A Follow Up To This Week's Tree Article

Earlier this week, this publication looked at how Troy’s tree program is structured. The City Beautification Committee doubles as the City’s Tree Board under the Code of Ordinances. It is supposed to enforce the tree ordinance, investigate complaints, review the law, recommend standards, and propose a Master Shade Tree Plan. The Board of Park Commissioners has authority to adopt, enforce, and implement that plan and the city’s Arboricultural Specifications and Standards of Practice. On paper, that is a shared system. On the ground, it has led to mixed results.

County Commissioner Ted Mercer’s concern at Madison Hickman’s Third Ward meeting was simple. Troy has invested heavily in the West Main Street corridor and left the curb lawns bare. At the same time, parks like McKaig & Race have seen large plantings of cherry trees and lilacs as part of a long tribute effort. When neighbors objected last fall, the city adjusted, moved the final 30 trees to Duke Park’s Robinson Reserve, and preserved open play space. That was the right call for the park. It did nothing to add trees to residential streets.

Other Ohio communities have faced the same tensions and responded by building clear, resident-facing programs that get trees into curb lawns.

Mentor provides street trees free to residents and plants them in the public right-of-way with city crews, building an urban forest of more than 24,000 public trees valued at over $5 million. Worthington runs a cost-share program where residents pay part of the cost and the city pays the rest and handles planting. Upper Arlington uses its buying power to keep per-tree costs low and installs curb lawn trees for residents who opt in. Cincinnati’s ReLeaf program, funded largely by sponsors, has distributed more than 26,000 trees and helped raise the city’s canopy from 38 percent to 43 percent between 2010 and 2020.

And is this story was being researched, this was the surprise: Troy already has a curb lawn tree program. It is called Adopt-A-Tree, and it works like this — a resident purchases a tree at any local nursery of their choice, calls the Park Department at 937-335-4612, and the city will transport and plant it at no additional cost.

That is a real, resident-facing service. And most people in Troy have never heard of it.

That is the problem.

A program that residents do not know about is not really a program. It is a buried line in a city FAQ. If you did not know Adopt-A-Tree existed before reading this article, you are not alone. The city deserves credit for having the infrastructure in place. The problem is how the program has been promoted and marketed to residents - this program doesn’t even have a dedicated mention on the city’s webpage. You wouldn’t be off base to ask if the program even exists.

Troy already has the other technical pieces those comparison cities rely on. The 2007 Arboricultural Specifications and Standards of Practice include a detailed list of approved street tree species — small, medium, and large — suited to Troy’s conditions. The same document lists prohibited species that should not go into tree lawns or public places. The Beautification Committee, acting as Tree Board, is charged with reviewing these standards and recommending a Master Shade Tree Plan. The Park Board is authorized to adopt and implement that plan.

But before any of that matters to a resident on a bare street, Troy needs to fix two things.

First, who is in charge. Right now, the city has split tree duties between the Beautification Committee and the Park Board. Both bodies touch trees. Neither is clearly the single, accountable owner of the overall program. That dual structure makes it easy for tree issues to fall into the gap between a beautification agenda and a park agenda. A resident with a concern does not know whether to call the Beautification Committee, the Park Board, City Council, or staff. Even insiders cannot always answer that question.

Second, who knows about Adopt-A-Tree. A program with no marketing is invisible. The city should be promoting this program on its website homepage, through social media, at community meetings like the ones Madison Hickman and the At-Large Council Members are hosting, and through a simple, one-page flyer that any resident can pick up at City Hall or the Park Department office maybe even a dedicated webpage should be considered.

Once accountability and awareness are both in place, the path forward is clear. Troy could prioritize streets with heavy pedestrian use, older neighborhoods with little canopy, or corridors where major projects have left empty curb lawns. Funding could blend city dollars, foundation support, sponsor contributions, and general donations.

The benefits go beyond looks. Street trees slow and filter stormwater, cool pavement during summer heat, improve air quality, slow traffic speeds and increase nearby property values. They send a quiet signal that the city is investing in everyday streets, not just in showcase parks and downtown planters.

Troy has the codified structure, the species list, the Tree City USA status, and — it turns out — an existing curb lawn planting program. The next step is not another policy document. It is making sure every resident in every ward knows that if they want a tree in front of their house, the city will plant it. All they have to do is call.

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