When NFL Draft organizers announced plans to chop 21 cherry trees in downtown Nashville to build a temporary stage in 2019, it caused a public outcry. But it also sparked a two-year effort to design the city’s first proposed ordinance to protect trees on public property.

“In that case, it wasn’t really so much those cherry trees. It was just that people are feeling so violated by all the growth in the city and the loss of trees and quality of life,” said Carol Ashworth of the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps, which helped create this bill. “With this new bill, Metro is stepping up to do their part to be responsible and accountable.”

The bill, which recently passed its second reading, seeks to promote transparency and oversight within Metro departments regarding tree removal and replacement.

To start, that means collecting data on the area’s existing trees. The bill would mandate a Davidson County-wide urban tree canopy study at least every five years.

“How do we know what we’re losing if we don’t have a record of what was there?” Ashworth said.

The rate of tree loss is hard to quantify without a comprehensive tree inventory, but Ashworth says it has multiplied in recent years. In 2018, Metro Water Services reported that Davidson County lost 13% of its tree canopy, or about 918 acres, from 2008 to 2016. MWS plans to collect data this winter for a study that will be released in 2022 or 2023.

The bill would also set tree protection standards. Panel reviews will be required if someone wants to remove 90 inches worth of trees or a single large tree with a trunk over 30 inches wide.

“Instead of wondering, ‘Gosh, with this coming down, this coming down, do we have oversight over it?’ Now, finally, we do,” said Metro Councilmember Jeff Syracuse, who sponsored the bill.

Tony Gonzalez WPLN News

Two years ago, NFL draft organizers removed cherry trees on First Avenue in downtown Nashville to clear space for a temporary stage.

If trees must be removed, the bill would set standards for tree replacements, which must be at least two inches wide and six feet tall. If a tree with a trunk greater than 20 inches is removed, then the responsible agency will have to plant four trees.

One challenge with this ordinance could be enforcement, as the city has limited funding and staff in urban forestry. But Ashworth suggested that citizens can help in this effort by reporting tree losses to hubNashville.

The proposed ordinance identifies trees as essential infrastructure — a notion that could have wider implications in efforts to protect local trees on a larger scale.

If the bill passes on Aug. 17, city officials and the Nashville Tree Conservation Corps will next begin work on an ordinance to protect the urban tree canopy on single-family properties. Currently, there is no law that protects a tree in a person’s yard.

“When you’re looking from an environmental overview, that one tree is part of a huge matrix that makes up the canopy. It takes 100,000 trees to shift the needle one degree when it comes to environmental benefits. One tree can’t do it. But that one individual tree belongs to the greater good,” Ashworth said.