Lately D.C. has been on a tree-planting binge, planting more than 12 thousand new trees across the city in 2022. But all that frenetic shoveling and staking and watering is barely keeping pace with the loss of mature trees, many of which are being cut down to make way for development. The latest report card from the nonprofit Casey Trees highlights this duality: while the city scores an A+ for tree planting, it gets an F for tree preservation.

“What we’re finding this year is that despite exceeding our city’s planting goals — which are honestly far more ambitious than most other cities in the nation — we’re still losing canopy,” says Kelly Collins Choi, director of policy and land conservation at Casey Trees.

Between 2015 and 2020, D.C. lost 565 acres of tree canopy — equivalent to gouging a hole in the city’s greenery the size of the National Mall. That translates to 1% loss in tree canopy in the city, and there have been even bigger losses in some of the suburbs. Prince George’s County experienced a 2.2% canopy loss, or 6997 acres. Montgomery County saw a 1.8% canopy decline, or 5838 acres.

The report card does note some steps in the right direction in terms of protecting trees — particularly the passage of legislation tightening the law against cutting down large trees, known as heritage trees. D.C.’s division of urban forestry can now issue stop work orders to prevent trees from being cut down illegally. Previously, a loophole in the tree protection law meant that the city could only issue fines after the fact, but had no power to proactively prevent illegal tree removals. Numerous developers took advantage of this, chalking up the fines to the cost of doing business.

According to the report card, the new law is working, though it’s not perfect: in 2022, there were 13 stop work orders issued to prevent illegal tree removals. Still, there were 22 heritage trees that were cut down illegally, and some residents reported that their 311 calls on illegal tree cutting went unanswered.

Casey Trees gave the city an F on tree protection for two reasons: the fines for illegal tree removals are too low, and not all the funds from the fines are used for tree planting, as stipulated in the tree protection law.

The fines were set in 2016, and with inflation and the exploding cost of housing, they’re no longer a meaningful deterrent, Collins Choi says.

Heritage trees are defined as those larger than 100 inches in circumference. The fines currently start at $30,000, or $300 per inch. Collins Choi says adjusted for inflation, the fines should now start at $37,500. Trees between 44 and 99.9 inches circumference are considered special trees, and may only be removed with a permit, currently costing between $2,500 and $5,500. Collins Choi says that should be adjusted to a range of $3,000 to $7,000. Those increases would cover the cost of planting an additional 1,500 trees per year, she says.

Overall, the District scored a B on this year’s report card, down from A- last year, and the lowest grade since 2015.

The city got an A- for tree coverage, which measures how much of the District is covered by tree canopy. Tree canopy declined from 38%  to 37% of the city’s area, but it’s still close to the District’s goal of 40% tree cover. Tree health also got an A-, with 91% of trees in the city in good or excellent health. Tree planting scored an A+, with the city planting 12,111 trees in 2022, surpassing the goal of 10,500.

The report card includes several recommendations for how to grow the District’s tree canopy. For one thing, more trees could be considered special trees, to disincentivize people from cutting them down. Casey Trees recommends setting the minimum size at 25 inches, rather than 44. That would mean 20% of the city’s trees would be afforded protection as special or heritage trees, up from the current 15%.

This story was updated to correct the spelling of Kelly Collins Choi’s name.