Trees before Grand Prix!

Everyone agrees on the benefits of trees – including the Baltimore Grand Prix race organizers (link). However, they seek to remove 136 or more healthy, mature trees and replace them with 139 "new" trees, a significant percentage of which will be in planters (for transportability for future races.)

Race organizers say that the trees need to come down in order to "improve sight lines" for race specators – presumably allowing greater attendance, and higher ticket prices.

"New" trees (which may have a 2" caliper diameter) do not provide anywhere near the benefits that a mature tree can. Furthermore, the aesthetic quality of trees in planters is significantly lower than a mature established tree.

We believe that sacrificing established trees to increase profits for race organizers is unfair and should have been more open to public discussion and, if executed at all, done in compliance with the law.

When the subject of trees first came up last fall, race organizers used mild-mannered words like "uproot and replant," to describe their plans, but it seems that the plan all along was to clearcut. We seek to halt any new cutting, determine a new plan, and hold the Mayor and race organizers accountable to protecting our city's trees, a valuable and fundamentally irreplaceable public asset.

We assert that the removal of multiple trees on August 1 (several of which were over 40 years old and 3 feet in circumference at the base) was in violation of Article 7 of the Code of the City of Baltimore, which lists explicit protections for trees, and we will seek an immediate injunction to halt the further removal of trees until such time as a new plan can be vetted before the public, experts in the field, and the broader business community.

For more information, read this coverage from the Baltimore Sun, August 1.