As work continues on the restoration of the seawalls along D.C’s Tidal Basin, 140 cherry trees between the Jefferson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorials have been axed.
Some D.C. locals feared that one particular tree, “Stumpy,” had already gotten removed. Stumpy, a small, gnarled cherry tree that clung to life in soil increasingly inundated by brackish water, first went viral in 2020.
“If you look at the lower 80% of him, you’d say ‘he’s dead’ and then yet, every spring he puts out these beautiful blossoms,” National Park Service National Mall spokesperson Mike Litterst told “CBS Sunday Morning” in April.
On Wednesday, D.C. local news site PoPVille posted photos indicating that Stumpy was gone. But the National Park Service says that isn’t the case.
“While site preparation and tree removal have started around the Tidal Basin in advance of the reconstruction of the seawall, ’Stumpy’ has not yet been removed. Crews are working around that tree to allow time for enough new growth to be taken to propagate new trees from its branches,” Mr. Litterst told the Washington Times.
The National Arboretum will take clippings from that new growth, which will be used to create clones to stand tall in Stumpy’s place along the Tidal Basin.
A total of 300 trees, both cherry and other types, are being removed as part of the restoration process. The National Park Service will replant 455 trees, with 274 of them being cherry trees, once the work is finished.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced in a visit to the White House last month that his country will donate another 250 trees.
The National Park Service has not clarified whether that donation will count towards the 274 cherry trees it intends to replant along the Tidal Basin.
The first of D.C.’s famous cherry trees was installed in 1912 as a gift from Tokyo Mayor Yukio Ozaki.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Stumpy’s fate.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.