WASHINGTON — The craggy Japanese cherry tree Stumpy, which delights residents and tourists with flowers on a few slender branches every spring, is showing its last legs.
Arborists say Stumpy's trunk is hollow inside and is scheduled to be cut down in the coming months as part of a $113 million sea wall restoration project near the National Mall due to climate change.158 It states that there is a good reason to place this tree among the trees of books.
In the end, the National Park Service removed about 300 of the 3,700 trees that line the shores of the Tidal Basin reservoir between the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, leaving the reservoir and The West Potomac River levees will be reinforced.
Stampy rose to fame in 2020 during the pandemic after a Reddit user posted a photo of him and compared his apparently limp state to his love life. Word of the tree and its users spread online, and Stumpy's fame skyrocketed.
Like the lanky Charlie Brown Christmas tree that breathed new life into the languid holiday season, this little tree has become a Washington icon as the warmth of spring reignites its sparse branches and blooms pink flowers. It became something like.
As word spread about Stumpy's fate, many fans headed to the Tidal Basin to see him one last time.
“Each year, more and more people come down for Stampy and line up to take pictures,” said Mike Litterst, a Park Service spokesman. “Of course, this year is through the roof.”
Next month, the park service will receive cuttings from Stumpy and other cherry trees slated for removal and use them to grow more Stumpy and its lesser-known cousin. The dead trees will then be turned into mulch and placed around the trees still standing on the National Mall.
“You could only have a Stampy clone if you wanted to, but we like variety,” Litterst said. “So we think Stumpy and all the other trees that are going to fall will at least have a second life that is beneficial and useful.”
Residents and tourists flocked to the Tidal Basin to see cherry blossoms in full bloom this year, with Sunday recording the second-earliest blooming date on record, with many taking photos and paying their respects to the isolated cherry tree. I'm doing it. , located far away from other cherry blossom trees.
“[It’s] Dead on the inside, alive on the outside,” tourist Amanda Lawson said with a laugh.
Emily Vickers, a photographer from Atlanta, has been visiting the Tidal Basin every year for the past 10 years just to see Stampy.
“In the case of Stumpy, I think it almost looks like an ugly duckling, but it's beautiful,” Vickers said. “It's its own thing and it just stands out. If you look at all the history, it's kind of magical and I think it would be sad to see it retired.”
Stampy and others are under control as part of the seawall along the Tidal Basin, a man-made reservoir on the west bank of the Potomac River and near the National Mall, has sunk 5 feet since it was built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. We are preparing for this. According to the Park Service. Several factors contribute to deterioration, including aging, poor drainage, and rising sea levels.
Peter Byrne, a professor at the Georgetown Climate Center in Washington, said some types of trees can survive underwater, but Japanese cherry blossoms are not.
“There are no plants that are adapted to being in water,” he said. “Part of the problem with cherry blossoms is that they are completely different from those near water. Other types of trees would be much happier near water.”
He said he understood the reasoning behind the effort, although repairing the sea wall would mean the loss of organic interaction between land and water.
“Cultural landscapes like the Tidal Basin are so important to people because of their symbolism and their association with it that they are actually exceptional spaces and that doing something like a seawall is something that is not normal. It might make more sense than doing it on the territory, which is under threat of flooding,” Byrne said.
Under normal tidal conditions, the Potomac River water would flow over part of the levee twice a day, flooding the ground around many cherry trees, including Stumpy's, and jeopardizing the safety of visitors, Litterst said. He says he is threatened.
He said Stumpy's condition was a direct result of climate change, adding: “Right now, it's literally just the bark and a few branches on top of it.”
