Media Contact: Karyn LeBlanc at (202) 671-3490
The District Department of Transportation’s (DDOT) Urban Forestry Administration (UFA) and Casey Trees invite residents to join in a new pilot program requesting citizen’s help in the watering of newly planted, young trees, in the District by requesting a free “Ooze Tube.”
What is an “Ooze Tube?” It is a watering bag specially designed to help young trees establish themselves in under-irrigated environments. When a resident receives an ooze tube the device has step-by-step instructions illustrated on the bag and written instructions. It’s easy! A person unwraps the plastic tube from around the stake, wraps the tube around the tree and centers it, stakes it in, fills it up with water, punches some holes in the bottom, and places 2 plastic drip emitters on each side of the bag. Water will then drain out slowly over the course of the week.
After that all that is left is for the citizen to fill the bag every 1 to 2 weeks–depending on rain–from June till October. During the winter the bags are emptied and stored so they can be used again the following year. The program ends in the fall, as the leaves begin to change and fall off. The bags should be used over the next 2 to 3 years as the young trees begin to establish themselves.
In an effort to test the program through a slow roll out, DDOT and Casey Trees have been working together on a grassroots campaign through the local ANCs, BIDs and farmer’s markets that identifies DC residents and communities that want to care and water their new neighborhood street trees. Through ANC meetings, attending farmer’s markets and identifying community captains to help with the reach out and distribute Ooze tubes, DDOT and Casey Trees have distributed 865 of the 2500 available Ooze Tubes, across the city, to date.
In addition to DDOT and Casey Trees outreach, other District agencies are getting involved. The Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services has taken 160 ooze tubes to assist in distributing to citizens with young trees in front of their houses, apartments, or businesses. DC youth are being involved through the District Department of the Environment’s (DDOE) Green Summer program–they are helping weed and mulch trees around recreation center neighborhoods and they are passing out flyers to citizens with newly planted trees telling them about the free ooze tube service.
Casey Trees is involved with the District’s Tree Watering Campaign by working with their Citizen Foresters. Many of them have become captains of their Single Member Districts and they outreach to citizens within their SMDs to adopt the newly planted street trees. They have 37 single member captains.
Billboards are currently on display across the city with the message “Tall, green, and environmentally sensitive. Please water me!” in an effort to further encourage district residents to care for our city’s street trees.
People can also go to www.caseytrees.org to learn who might be a watering captain in their neighborhood (ANC Single Member District) and can request a tree watering bag from their captain.
How do you participate?
To order your own ooze tube first identify the young tree you are going to adopt, then contact Casey Trees at their website:
or call (202) 671-5133 to request an ooze tube. Participants need to provide the approximate address of the young street tree being adopted and an address to drop off the ooze tube.