The Phases of Shelby Avenue Arboretum

Nashville is a con­stant­ly grow­ing city, but with any growth comes chal­lenges. One spe­cif­ic issue our great city’s explo­sive expan­sion cre­at­ed is a dis­tinct lack of nat­ur­al growth. We’ve lost many trees and whole ecosys­tems to urban­iza­tion and extreme weath­er. For­tu­nate­ly, there is still plen­ty that we can do to sal­vage this city’s green­ery and cre­ate an oppor­tu­ni­ty for res­i­dents to stay con­nect­ed with nature in an urban set­ting. We are Nashville Tree Con­ser­va­tion Corps, and we are work­ing tire­less­ly to bring back this rich aspect of our ecosys­tem and city’s her­itage. Our ini­tia­tive is mul­ti-faceted, but the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is a major com­po­nent of this revitalization.

Why Shel­by Avenue?

What is an arbore­tum, and why choose Shel­by Avenue for this project? The Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum is a project we’re under­tak­ing as a part of Nashville Tree Con­ser­va­tion Corps’ mis­sion. With the help of the com­mu­ni­ty and var­i­ous donors, our plan is to plant 1,000+ trees from South 7^th Street to Shel­by Park. Shel­by Avenue and sur­round­ing streets were areas of Nashville that sus­tained dam­age dur­ing the 1998 tor­na­do and the March 2020 tor­na­do out­break. East Nashville had some of the most beau­ti­ful tree canopy cov­er in the entire city at one time until these storms, and now we are devel­op­ing this project to bring back and for­ti­fy its once vibrant lus­ter. This area makes for a good focus for many rea­sons, but chief among them is an effort to restore the tree canopy lost to these storms in East Nashville. Shel­by Avenue is also a key artery of Nashville, con­nect­ing the city to I‑24 and cross­ing the Cum­ber­land Riv­er. Beau­ti­fy­ing this area of our city and adding much need­ed shade for gen­er­a­tions is impor­tant to pre­serv­ing the cul­ture of Nashville and what makes it unique.

We are plant­i­ng over 2.5 miles of new trees, which means approx­i­mate­ly 1000+ new trees for the city in this arbore­tum alone. Shel­by Avenue marks a great first step toward regreen­ing Nashville, and with that comes increased oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion and con­nec­tion with nature. How spe­cial is it that many chil­dren will get to expe­ri­ence an arbore­tum in their neigh­bor­hood as they grow up!

The Sec­tions of Shel­by Avenue Arboretum

The tree plant­i­ng plan is divid­ed into four col­or-cod­ed sec­tions with dif­fer­ent goals in mind for each. These sec­tions are home to dif­fer­ent vari­eties of trees based on eco­log­i­cal needs, city infra­struc­ture con­straints, diver­si­ty and dis­play of species in the arbore­tum, and the needs of near­by res­i­dents. Shade is an incred­i­bly valu­able thing in Nashville’s hot sum­mer months, and many of the species being plant­ed can pro­vide a great deal of shade for pedes­tri­ans and homes. This can help low­er cool­ing costs in the home and make the city far more walk­a­ble, enjoy­able, and even a safer expe­ri­ence for all who live near­by. Here is a break­down of how each sec­tion was deter­mined and the types of trees that are planned for them. 

Yel­low and Blue Section 

Yel­low Sec­tion com­pris­es the west­ern half of Shel­by Avenue, lead­ing from the inter­state to 10^th Street. Blue Sec­tion meets Yel­low Sec­tion at 10^th Street and con­tin­ues east­ward to Shel­by Park. These two sec­tions are the longest and com­prise the entire­ty of the project on Shel­by Avenue prop­er. In these sec­tions, the trees will range from medi­um to large in size, and there will be a mix of species to pro­vide excel­lent shade and an array of eye-catch­ing col­ors. In this sec­tion, flow­er­ing trees like cher­ry trees, saucer mag­no­lias, dog­woods, tulip poplars, and east­ern red­buds will cre­ate vibrant blooms in the spring. Robust, larg­er trees like red and sug­ar maples, sweet­gum, gink­gos, fron­tier elms, and swamp and pin oaks will also be plant­ed along this sec­tion. These trees all cre­ate large canopies that shade side­walks des­per­ate­ly in need of relief from the direct sunlight. 

Red and Green Sections

These two small­er sec­tions branch off from Blue Sec­tion on 12^th and 13^th Streets. Here the focus is on small­er trees, with cher­ry blos­som vari­eties being the pri­ma­ry species. Expect pink spring blos­soms with rich green foliage in the sum­mer months for excel­lent shade and vibrance. 

The project will have many more sec­tions besides these big col­or-cod­ed areas, which were first craft­ed to guide big-pic­ture plan­ning for plant­i­ng — the project will have many sub­sec­tions to show­case the ver­sa­til­i­ty of trees in the urban land­scape. As we devel­op sig­nage for the project, the fol­low­ing sub­sec­tions will emerge for peo­ple to enjoy and learn more about on their walks in the project: Big Trees for Big Spaces, Native Trees in the Urban Land­scape, Tough Trees for Tough Spaces, Trees That Bloom, Maples from Around the World, Mil­i­tary Ser­vice Memo­r­i­al, Red­bud Avenue, Native Ever­greens, Paw Paw Trail, Careers with Plants, etc.

The Phas­es of Shel­by Avenue Arboretum

Plant­i­ng trees is no sim­ple task, and we have a team of pro­fes­sion­als mak­ing sure that exist­ing trees are prop­er­ly pruned or removed, and new trees are plant­ed with a pre­ci­sion that guar­an­tees healthy and long lives. Most of the trees being removed are aging or dying crabap­ple trees and ash trees. Ash trees are also being removed due to the high risk of Emer­ald Ash Bor­er bee­tles. These inva­sive insects have already killed hun­dreds of mil­lions of ash trees in North Amer­i­ca, because their lar­vae feed on the inner bark of trees, caus­ing them to die from the inside. Curb­ing the pop­u­la­tion of ash trees in the city can help pre­vent trans­mis­sion to oth­er trees and slow the spread to our forests.

In order to best meet the goals of this mas­sive under­tak­ing, the Shel­by Avenue Arboretum’s devel­op­ment is divid­ed up into three phas­es. Each phase focused on a dif­fer­ent process of the project’s devel­op­ment: Phase 1 — Plant­i­ng, Phase 2 — Infor­ma­tion & Edu­ca­tion, Phase 3 — Main­te­nance Fund, and Phase 4 — Fundrais­ing Com­mu­ni­ty Events.

Phase 1

Phase 1 is already most­ly com­plete and com­pris­es the bulk of plant­i­ng new trees, prun­ing, and remov­ing old trees. Start­ing in the fall of 2020, hun­dreds of vol­un­teers plant­ed hun­dreds of trees along Shel­by Avenue. The phase saw even more com­mu­ni­ty tree-plant­i­ng events, where res­i­dents were encour­aged to get their hands dirty and plant trees along­side our knowl­edge­able vol­un­teers. Now the project con­tin­ues to expand, but most­ly by hired pro­fes­sion­als to plant and main­tain the project. Phase 1 will be com­plete once we have plant­ed over 1,000 trees. We have cur­rent­ly plant­ed 680 trees.

Phase 2

Phase 2 is where we con­nect res­i­dents to the project. This web­site and the very blog you’re read­ing are key parts of Phase 2, where each tree species and vari­ety has its own web­page. We are also installing sig­nage for each tree vari­ety, cre­at­ing bound­less oppor­tu­ni­ties for edu­ca­tion and enrich­ment for res­i­dents of all ages. Research has shown that peo­ple care far more about the envi­ron­ment when exposed to it, and we hope that by con­nect­ing peo­ple to this project, we will help make these impor­tant small con­nec­tions to the nat­ur­al world. Life in and near a city can great­ly detach a per­son from the nat­ur­al beau­ty of the world, and the urgency for preser­va­tion itself can be lost. By learn­ing more about our envi­ron­ment and the var­i­ous ways we can main­tain and care for it, we have fos­tered a great deal of love for nature on Shel­by Avenue.

Phase 3

Phase 3 seeks to estab­lish a main­te­nance fund that can ensure the upkeep of these trees for gen­er­a­tions to come. You’ve heard the phrase ​“mon­ey doesn’t grow on trees,” and that’s iron­i­cal­ly very true when car­ing for trees. It’s not always easy to find the mon­ey to keep things run­ning smooth­ly, but Nashville is a com­pas­sion­ate city — a mod­el for the nation on how regreen­ing ini­tia­tives can bring peo­ple togeth­er and restore the nat­ur­al beau­ty of our cities. Peo­ple from all walks of life have con­tributed to our cause, be it with their time, ener­gy, or hard-earned mon­ey. Through gen­er­ous dona­tions from our spon­sors, the fund is pre­pared to sup­port this ini­tia­tive for years to come, but the work is nev­er done. We are always grate­ful for more fund­ing so that we can expand and bet­ter sup­port the Shel­by Arbore­tum and ini­tia­tives beyond. 

Phase 4

Once the main­te­nance fund is estab­lished, we want to have some fun keep­ing it filled, and so we are cre­at­ing com­mu­ni­ty fundrais­ing events to cel­e­brate the project and keep it vibrant. We are think­ing about things like a Shel­by Spring Blos­som 5k, com­mu­ni­ty fish fries, art sales, and more. 

Our hopes look­ing for­ward are based on the hard work and gen­eros­i­ty of so many Nashville res­i­dent vol­un­teers who made the Shel­by Avenue Arbore­tum a suc­cess. We will con­tin­ue to sup­port the Arbore­tum thanks to our donors and spon­sors, and we are endeav­or­ing to extend our efforts to oth­er areas of Nashville. Why do peo­ple vis­it arbore­tums? Arbore­tums attract peo­ple because of their nat­ur­al beau­ty. Urban life can some­times make us feel detached from nature. And arbore­tums like Shel­by Avenue are just the begin­ning for our city.

What is the pur­pose of an arbore­tum? An arbore­tum helps link peo­ple with their envi­ron­ment and fos­ter a love and respect of nature. This is impor­tant for con­ser­va­tion and mak­ing sure that the next gen­er­a­tion of botanists and arborists are well-pre­pared to con­tin­ue our efforts. In addi­tion to our plant­i­ng efforts, we also have trees for sale in Nashville and tree acces­sories for per­son­al plant­i­ng. Ever heard of a tree dia­per before? Prob­a­bly not, but don’t let the name scare you — they are installed on every tree in the project. These are incred­i­ble prod­ucts that we are for­tu­nate enough to sell to help ensure your trees live long and fruit­ful (pun intend­ed) lives. These eco-friend­ly water­ing devices are espe­cial­ly help­ful for urban trees as they absorb water from rain or irri­ga­tion and hold onto it for much longer than soil is able, slow­ly releas­ing it to the trees for max­i­mum absorp­tion. Sum­mer heat can be hard on trees, and water is not an unlim­it­ed resource. 

Con­ser­va­tion starts with you, and we do every­thing in our pow­er to make trees afford­able to our cus­tomers and offer robust sup­port for every issue that may arise. Our non-prof­it has moved over 5,000 trees to the city of Nashville in just four short years of exist­ing, and we aren’t slow­ing down. There are count­less vari­eties of trees avail­able in our tree sale, at your local land­scape nurs­ery, and in the Ten­nessee tree farms sur­round­ing Nashville.

Shel­by Avenue extends direct­ly into the heart of down­town Nashville, and with the Arbore­tum, we believe that we’re inspir­ing and fos­ter­ing con­nec­tion with nature in our com­mu­ni­ties through­out the city. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the next best time is today, and today we are plant­i­ng thou­sands for the hope of tomor­row. Some species of trees plant­ed in this arbore­tum can live upwards of 500 years, mean­ing the impact of our actions today can lit­er­al­ly per­se­vere for cen­turies. If you have been a part of this ini­tia­tive so far, we thank you for your con­tin­ued sup­port! And if you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more or get­ting involved, please don’t hes­i­tate to reach out to us via email at help@​treeconservationcorps.​org.