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An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the National Park Service would remove 300 D.C. cherry trees. The Park Service will remove 300 trees in total, including 158 cherry trees. The story has been corrected.

The National Park Service said Wednesday that it will remove about 300 trees — including 158 iconic cherry trees — around the Tidal Basin and West Potomac Park during a three-year project to rehabilitate crumbling sea walls in the area.

The Park Service said in a statement that it sought to minimize the number of trees that needed to be removed for the project. When work is completed, the Park Service said, it will plant 455 trees, including 274 cherry trees.

The Park Service initially said 140 cherry trees were being removed from the Tidal Basin, but later added that eighteen more were being removed from West Potomac Park.

There are about 1,700 Yoshino cherry trees around the Mall, the Park Service says. The lush and delicate pale pink blossoms have been entrancing visitors for more than a century. The first trees arrived as a gift from Japan in 1912.

There will be no construction activity in 2024 that affects Washington’s annual <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/03/12/cherry-blossoms-dc-peduncle-elongation-peak-bloom/" target=_blank>National Cherry Blossom Festival,</a> a Park Service statement said. The trees are expected to be close to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/03/12/cherry-blossoms-dc-peduncle-elongation-peak-bloom/" target=_blank>peak bloom</a> by this weekend and hitting peak early next week. The three-week festival is attended by about 1.5 million people. It runs from March 20 to April 14.

Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said officials wanted to alert the public now “because we really want to encourage people to get down, see the Tidal Basin, experience peak bloom one last time before there’s a couple years of construction fencing, paths being rerouted and things like that.”

Construction equipment will be in place for next year’s festival, Litterst said.

Among the trees to be removed is a 25-year-old tree on the Tidal Basin nicknamed “Stumpy,” for its stunted appearance. It has gained a following in recent years as it continued to bloom despite a less-than-glamorous profile.

“That tree is unfortunately one of the ones that’s coming down,” Litterst said.

But clippings from Stumpy will be taken to grow other versions that will be planted later around the Tidal Basin, he said.

Litterst said he was not sure how old the other trees slated for removal were. “Some of them we may be able to age when they come down,” he said.

He said the trees would be turned into mulch and brought back to the Mall. “The mulch will be placed on the roots of living trees, so they provide some protection and some barriers to all the foot traffic,” he said.

“Then as they break down and become soil, they stay in the park and provide nutrients for trees for generations to come,” he said in a telephone interview. “This way they literally, in one form or another, live on for years.”

The construction of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial required the removal of a handful of cherry trees, but more than 100 new ones were added. The memorial was dedicated in 2011. That part of the Tidal Basin, the north side, won’t be impacted by the project, he said.

The Park Service statement Wednesday said the removal of the trees would begin in late May.

The sea walls along the Tidal Basin, site of memorials to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/08/20/bugs-bad-weather-have-had-their-way-with-jefferson-memorial-now-park-service-is-fighting-back/" target="_blank">Thomas Jefferson</a>, have been crumbling for decades.

In 2010, a $12.4 million repair project shored up the Jefferson Memorial’s poorly supported sea wall.

“Portions of the sea walls have settled as much as five feet since their initial construction from the late 1800s to the early 1900s,” the Park Service said. “As a result of the settling and sea level rise, water flows over portions of the sea walls twice a day during normal tidal conditions.”

“The sea walls are no longer structurally sound and threaten visitor safety and the historic setting, including the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin,” the statement said.

The $113 million project is designed to protect remaining trees and the memorials for the next 100 years, the statement said.

Part of the Washington Post team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for coverage of the January 6 riot. 

Part of the Washington Post team that won he Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting. 

Finalist for the Ernie Pyle award in 1988 at the Philadelphia Inquirer.

With Sari Horwitz: Sniper: Inside the Hunt for the Killers Who Terrorized the Nation. 

Villanova University, BA and MA in history

Nieman fellow, Harvard University

Michael E. Ruane is a general assignment reporter who also covers Washington institutions and historical topics. He has been a general assignment reporter at the Philadelphia Bulletin, an urban affairs and state feature writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and a Pentagon correspondent at Knight Ridder newspapers.

Michael Ruane

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Park Service to cut down 158 cherry trees during sea wall project.

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