We are always excited to show folks around our beloved Brookland neighborhood. Earlier this month we had quite a special visitor – European Union (EU) Commissioner for Environment and Oceans, Virginijus Sinkevičius! Since 2019 Commissioner Sinkevičius has worked to ensure that the environment, oceans, and fisheries remain at the core of the European Green Deal. As Commissioner, he also promotes the use of sustainable resources throughout the EU.
Promoting sustainable resources? Say no more! We were thrilled to showcase one of the best sustainable resources – trees – at one of our latest and largest neighborhood projects, Turkey Thicket Recreation Center.
Turkey Thicket Recreation Center and its sprawling campus of tennis courts, ball fields, splash pads, and playgrounds, is a public park located in an under-canopied neighborhood that suffers from one of the most severe Heat Island Indexes across the entire district. We’ve been working with the Department of Parks and Recreation for a number of years to add much-needed trees to this site and on Monday were adding an additional 20 trees, including native canopy trees like White Oaks, Willow Oaks, Nuttall Oak, and Zelkova. Even more exciting news? Every tree was homegrown with love and care on the Casey Tree Farm.
The Commissioner rolled up his sleeves (figuratively, it was quite a cold day!) and helped us plant a tree! We were excited to share more of our environmental work in the city with an honorable figure. Plus, we think the group enjoyed a more … hands-on type of meeting.
Overall, it was a terrific way to come together, get our hands dirty, make a tangible impact, celebrate our collective efforts to mitigate climate change worldwide and work together to re-tree DC.
A great big thanks to the Commissioner for taking time out of his jam-packed visit to the US to join us at the Turkey Thicket Installation. It was great to learn more about the challenges he’s focusing on and how similar those are to our day-to-day challenges – successfully focusing on green interventions that will positively impact residents for generations to come.
Thanks are also in store for Mercedes García Pérez at the Delegation of the EU to the US. She was a joy to work with when we planted with every EU member state in 2019. We are honored that she thought of us when putting together the Commissioner’s whirlwind DC visit.
