Florence, with a population of about 37,000, covers approximately 21 square miles in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina. It got its startat the juncture of 3 railroad linesin the 19thcentury. In part due to its location on I-95 and I-20, Florence now thrives with a diversified economydominated by health care, finance, transportation, and industrial interests.
Like most municipalities, the City of Florence does community forestry in ways that work best for them. City Arborist (and former Trees SC board member) Jenny Lee, and most of the personnel associated with the community forestry program, are located in the Publc Works Department. Jenny has a 2-person, in-house tree crew that she supervises and for which she spends much of her time prioritizing tree work. She also has a 5-person crew that does maintenance and installation of a variety of projects in the downtown area, an area that has made stridesunder the focus of revitalization efforts over the past 10 years.
In the early 20thcentury (roughly the 1920s) there was a flurry of tree-planting along Florence’s streets, which resulted in a street tree population of hundreds of Darlington oaks, Quercus hemisphaerica. Today the remnants of that population is over-mature, with the resulting increase in problems such as sudden branch drop, extensive decay, and associated instability. Jenny has her hands full prioritizing necessary tree work with such limited resources. She currently does not have funding for supplemental contracted tree work, so it’s whatever a 2-person tree crew can accomplish. She also has considerable responsibility for maintenance of various City parks and properties in the downtown area. But the City recently received a grant to do a tree inventory, which could greatly help with prioritization of resource allocation and documentation of needs in dealing with the most problematic of the over-mature tree population.
Tree planting still gets a lot of attention in Florence’s community forestry program. Last year, they planted 538 trees and removed 83, Jenny says. That is quite an accomplishment for their relatively small number of in-house workers! As with most other municipalities, some tree-planting projects are associated with street renovation or upgrades, some are associated with facilities upgrades, and some are done to fill in empty spaces on streets where trees have been removed. Keep Florence Beautiful recently received a grant from Palmetto Pride to plant 135 young willow oak and crape myrtle trees at the Florence Soccer Complex, and 215 trees (and 2,500+ shrubs) were planted on Woody Jones Drive leading to Veterans Park.
Speaking of planting trees, Trees SC will be giving away young trees in the Florence area later this year through its Energy Saving Tree Giveaway program! Sponsored by Duke Energy, we will be giving away young Southern Redcedarand dwarf Chinkapin oakseedlings at a few community events later this year. We had three community events scheduled for this spring but due to public health recommendations for the COVID-19 pandemic, they were postponed until this fall.
Stay tuned for more info on these, and take some extra time to enjoy Florence if you get to go!
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