The masses of visitors heading to the D.C. Tidal Basin to see this year’s cherry blossoms might also spot young saplings along a newly completed sea wall.
The National Park Service is planting 400 new Yoshino cherry trees around the Tidal Basin and the National Mall.
Of those, 250 trees were gifts from Japan, celebrating the United States’ 250th birthday. The country gifted the original cherry blossom trees in 1912.
“This is the symbol of the friendship between the two countries, as well as well as a gift for the next generation. So, we are looking forward to these cherry blossom trees in bloom for many years to come,” Masatsugu Odaira, the Japanese Embassy’s minister for public affairs, told WTOP.
Most of the trees will be planted as the weather warms, National Mall Superintendent Kevin Griess told WTOP.
“We don’t want to plant them and then have a cold stretch come in,” Griess said.
But the public will have little access to these newer trees and the seawall project, which Griess previously said will have a grand reopening after the Cherry Blossom Festival.
“I just ask everyone to respect our areas that we block off so that the trees that we are planting get a chance to grow and thrive. Don’t hang on them. Don’t take one home,” Griess said at last week’s news conference predicting peak bloom.
The Tidal Basin seawall reconstruction project wrapped in December, strengthening the Potomac River shoreline from the Jefferson Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The area flooded often during high tide, and 140 trees were cut down for the project.
The larger Potomac River seawall project is expected to wrap in the coming months.
Griess said it’s under budget and ahead of schedule.
“When I say it’s ahead of schedule, it’s eight months ahead of schedule and then it’s $30 million under budget and that’s taxpayer money,” Griess said.
Griess said this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival is particularly important with the spotlight on the nation’s capital during the semiquincentennial.
“This is an anchor event in D.C. It starts off the entire season,” Griess said. “We have major America 250 celebratory events that will connect the nation and we’re doing our best to make it look great.”
Last year, around 1.6 million people visited the Tidal Basin for cherry blossom season. The National Park Service expects to smash that record this year.
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