Colmar Manor officials and partners map plan to add hundreds of street trees after inventory

Colmar Manor officials on Monday heard a detailed inventory and planting plan that town and county partners say could substantially expand the borough’s street-tree canopy.

Neighborhood Design Center project coordinator Mikaela Atta summarized the findings, saying NDC completed “a street tree inventory on all the municipality, roads that are public right of way,” and that the team identified roughly 200 existing right-of-way trees and about 437 available planting sites across town. Catherine Love, NDC’s urban and community-forestry technician, said the inventory found only a small number of hazardous trees and recommended removing roughly seven trees plus a few remaining Bradford pears.

The presentation urged the town to prioritize larger canopy species and to diversify away from the currently overrepresented crepe myrtle. “Crepe myrtles are the most numerous species here,” Love said, and NDC recommended “increasing the number of other species to lower that ratio of crepe myrtle overrepresentation.” The consultants also recommended establishing a watering plan and prioritizing large-tree planting sites to maximize environmental benefits.

Will Sanders, director of the Greenworks program at Joe’s Movement Emporium, described the on-the-ground planting work that will use the NDC inventory: “Today, we planted about a 130 trees, but at the end of this season, we'll have planted 219, within the town of Colmar Manor, with a value of about $65,000,” he said. Sanders said the planting effort is funded in part by a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant and includes two years of maintenance, regular watering schedules and structural pruning.

The presentation also included an estimate of ecological services: NDC staff said the current canopy provides about $7,500 annually in avoided costs for services such as cooling and stormwater mitigation, and that full planting of available sites could raise that estimated value to about $24,970. Consultants offered to provide species lists, maintenance guidance and training for the town’s public-works crew.

Council members and residents asked practical questions about tree-box species that root downward rather than outward, sidewalks, and how state-managed streets such as Bladensburg Road are handled; NDC staff said the inventory covered only municipal streets and that planting on state roads would require state approval.

Next steps identified during the meeting included providing a species-recommendation list, a maintenance-training workshop for public works, and sharing the full GIS inventory and final report with the town so those datasets can be used for grant applications and resident outreach.