NBC News | 'Stumpy,' a beloved Japanese cherry tree, makes its last bloom in Washington
March 23, 2024
Stumpy, a scraggly Japanese cherry blossom tree whose few skinny branches flower every spring to the delight of residents and tourists alike, is on its last legs.
Arborists say Stumpy’s interior trunk is hollow, reason enough to place it among 158 trees scheduled to be cut down in coming months as part of a $113 million sea wall repair project near the National Mall prompted by climate change.
[...]
Stumpy and the others are poised for a takedown because parts of the sea walls along the west Potomac River and the Tidal Basin, a manmade reservoir near the National Mall, have settled 5 feet since they were built in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, according to the park service. Several factors are contributing to the deterioration, including age, poor drainage and rising sea levels.
Peter Byrne, faculty director of the Georgetown Climate Center in Washington, said some types of trees can fare well in water, but not the Japanese cherry blossom.
“You don’t have plants that are adapted to being in water,” he said. “That’s part of the issue with the cherry blossoms is they’re not at all what you would have next to water. Other kinds of trees will be much happier being next to the water.”
He said that although the sea wall repair will eliminate an organic exchange between the land and water, he understands the reasoning behind the effort.