A gnarled cherry tree from Washington DC affectionately named Stumpy is being torn down after spending the last few years as a social media phenomenon.
For visitors and cherry blossom enthusiasts, the annual tradition of a stroll in the Tidal Basin under the blossoms is a quintessential Washington experience, and that includes Stumpy.
This year’s cherry blossom festivities in Washington will be the last for Stumpy and more than 100 other cherry trees that will be cut down as part of a multi-year restoration of their Tidal Basin home.
Stumpy became a social media star during the pandemic fever dream of 2020. Its legacy has spawned an official mascot, T-shirtsa calendar and a fan base.
The news of Stumpy’s last spring has people going flowers and bourbon and had a Reddit user threatening to chain himself to the trunk to save the tree.
A gnarled old Washington DC cherry tree named Stumpy is about to be torn down after spending the last few years as a social media phenomenon
Stumpy became a social media star during the pandemic fever dream of 2020. Its legacy has spawned an official mascot, T-shirts, a calendar and a fan base
The good news on Stumpy is that the National Arboretum plans to take parts of the tree’s genetic material and create clones, some of which will eventually be replanted at the Tidal Basin.
Jorge and Sandra Perez make a point of coming every year from Stafford, Virginia.
“Yes, we have cherry blossoms in my community, but it’s a whole different feeling when you see them all blooming together,” Sandra said. And you can walk through the trees under it and smell it. And it’s just a beautiful view.’
They also came looking for Stumpy, having heard the legend and knowing this would be the last spring.
“It’s actually beautiful,” Jorge said. “So it’s sad to see him go.”
Beginning this summer, crews will begin working to replace the crumbling seawall around the Tidal Basin, the area around the Jefferson Memorial with the highest concentration of cherry trees.
The work has been long overdue as the deterioration, combined with rising sea levels, has resulted in Potomac waters regularly surging over the barriers.
The twice-daily floods at high tide not only cover some of the footpaths, they also regularly soak some of the roots of the cherry trees.
News of Stumpy’s last spring has people abandoning flowers and bourbon and had one Reddit user threatening to chain himself to the trunk to save the tree
High tide reaches the base of a cherry tree nicknamed ‘Stumpy’ after a visitor leaves a thank you note at the tide pool
The good news on Stumpy is that the National Arboretum plans to take parts of the tree’s genetic material and create clones, some of which will eventually be replanted at the Tidal Basin
The $133 million project to rebuild and reinforce the seawall will take about three years, said Mike Litterst, National Park Service spokesman for the National Mall.
“It will definitely benefit the visitor experience, and that’s very important to us,” Litterst said.
‘But most of all it will benefit the cherry trees, which right now every day, twice a day, see their roots flooded with the brackish water of the tidal basin.’
Litterst said entire stretches of trees to the water, as wide as 100 yards or 90 meters, have been lost and cannot be replaced “until we fix the underlying cause of what killed them in the first place.”
The plans call for 140 cherry trees – and a total of 300 trees – to be removed and turned into mulch. When the project is completed, 277 cherry trees will be planted as replacements.
The bark chip will protect the roots of surviving trees from foot traffic and will break down over time into nutrient-rich soil, “so it’s a good second life” for the trees that are felled, Litterst said.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is considered to be the start of the tourist season in the nation’s capital.
The organizers expect 1.5 million people to see the pink and white flowers this year, the most since the coronavirus pandemic.
Visitors take pictures of themselves with Stumpy before the tree is cut down
The National Park Service is preparing to remove nearly 150 cherry trees in an effort to repair the city’s deteriorating seawalls
The cherry tree nicknamed ‘Stumpy’ stands at high tide by the tidal basin
A large number of cherry blossom fans have already been attracted to the area as the trees entered peak bloom on March 17, several days earlier than expected.
The regular flooding of the tidal basin — sea levels have risen about a foot since the seawall was built in the early 1990s — is just one of the ways climate change has affected the cherry trees.
Rising global temperatures and warmer winters have caused peak blooms creep earlier in the calendar.
This year’s peak bloom, when 70 percent of the city’s 3,700 cherry trees will bloom, was originally predicted to start around Saturday, but ended up being declared March 17.
By comparison, the peak bloom in 2013 began on April 9.
Leslie Frattaroli, national resource program manager for the Park Service, told The Associated Press in February that the peak bloom could regularly come in mid-March in 2050.
‘All the timing is off.’ he said. ‘It’s a huge cascading effect.’
Another weather side effect: A mid-March cold snap in the DC area should actually extend this year’s bloom past the predicted April 9 end.