The Grand Junction Parks and Recreation’s Forestry Division is accepting requests from city residents to plant new trees in public right-of-way adjacent to private properties. The Forestry Division prunes, removes, and treats street trees as a standard service for residents, and the planting of new street trees is an option when a property owner commits to providing trees with the water they need. Request the planting of a street tree.
The City continues to improve the city’s urban tree canopy by removing unsafe trees and planting new trees in parks and right-of-way. With increasing pressure from native pests, managing the good health of Grand Junction’s ash trees continues to pose challenges for City arborists. The city’s urban tree canopy is comprised of over 57,000 trees and ash trees make up 18% of the urban tree canopy. Over a thousand of the city’s largest and most valuable ash trees are being protected through the Forestry Division’s ash health care preservation program including trunk injections every three years.
Other actions that are critical to the health of the canopy include planting and trimming healthy trees as well as removing unhealthy trees. In 2024, city arborists removed 390 trees that were deemed unsafe or in poor condition and planted 439 new trees. With the knowledge that a varied and diverse mix of trees is the best way to prevent large scale tree loss due to insects and disease, the city has 70 different tree species on order for the 2025 planting season.