Volunteers Pitch In To Complete FFF-DPR Partnership Improvements
New Plan for 2023-2025 Approved by Advisory Neighborhood Commission
Posted: July 13, 2022.
Our Friends of Francis Field (FFF) organization is continuing to make the improvements to Francis Field specified in its 2019-2022 partnership agreement with the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR).
Volunteers and our landscape contractor were concentrating in June on weeding the beds of the rear-field landscaping, and establishing mulch circles around the trees in that area and in the proposed "Rebecca Coder Park" area along 25th Street NW.
As shown in the photograph at left, the mulch circles involve digging circular, weeded rings about three feet in diameter around the trunks of young trees, and then spreading hardwood mulch about three inches deep.
This decreases the tree's competition for nutrients and water with the grass and weeds that otherwise grow around it. The mulch also retains moisture that encourages the growth of the tree's root system.
Lastly, the mulch rings provide some protection of the tree trunks from industrial mowers and weed whips during routine mowing maintenance.
These same areas—the "Rebecca Coder Park" area and the rear-field landscaping—will also be the focus of FFF's new partnership plan for 2023-2025, which has been now been submitted to DPR.
The partnership plan also encourages the continuation of the Francis Tree Lab concept launched in 2019 in cooperation with the Casey Tree Foundation. The new plan welcomes the Urban Forestry Division of the D.C. Department of Transportation, which has been participating informally from the start.
The new, three-year plan, was presented to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2A at its June 20 meeting. It was given the ANC's support in a resolution introduced by Chairperson Joel Causey and passed unanimously.
The entire ANC-2A resolution of support can be found on this website. FFF has had a partnership agreement with DPR since 2013, which has been renewed continually with updated project plans.