Baltimore Grand Prix trees finally getting planted in city

It's said good things come to those who wait. But somebody still has to pay for them.

On Friday, a contractor commissioned by the city began planting 150 trees around downtown, fulfilling a pledge made – and broken – by the now-defunct organization behind last summer's Grand Prix auto race.

Baltimore Racing Development had agreed to plant a total of 198 trees downtown by last fall, after a public furor erupted over trees the city had permitted the group to cut down or move in the Inner Harbor to make way for the three-day event.

But after the financially troubled racing group missed its last tree-planting deadline in November, city officials decided to go ahead with putting the trees in this spring — at taxpayer expense, if necessary. That's how it's turned out, because the city severed ties with the debt-swamped racing group in late December after it failed to pay $1.5 million in taxes and fees owed.

Last month, the Board of Estimates approved a contract for about 970 trees to be planted on streets throughout the city. Most of those are for the city's annual tree-planting program, but 150 are earmarked to go in spots downtown that the racing group had agreed to fill. The race-related portion of the $268,000 tree contract came to $41,500, according to Erik Dihle, the city's arborist.

The cost is less than half the $100,000 that had been predicted several months ago by Beth Strommen, director of the city's Office of Sustainability. Part of that is because the city got a break for ordering so many trees together, she explained in an email. But the cost is lower also because the city isn't planting all the flowers called for in the agreement, or quite as many trees.

The race group had pledged to put 59 back in the Inner Harbor and plant another 139 around downtown to replace dead or dying trees.

But the organizers took out only 32 Inner Harbor trees, fewer than expected, explained Strommen. And some of the plantings called for in the agreement are still on hold, she said, including six saplings supposed to be replaced on Pratt Street in front of the Convention Center.

"They were not included this planting season until the details of the next race are worked out," Strommen said. Noting that bleachers were located there for the first race, she added, "It would be kind of silly to plant the trees in the ground now and then have to remove them immediately for the race." More at Baltimore Sun