Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
If you’re a fan of the trees running down the medians of South Westmoreland Road, they may not stick around. Technically, the trees are not supposed to be there, even though they have been for the last two and a half years.
Mark Lindenmayer said that over the past two years, after volunteering with Friends of Oak Cliff Parks for the Branch Out Dallas tree giveaway program, he was able to collect 22 extra trees from the event. Starting in November 2023, he would plant them, as he saw it as an opportunity to beautify the area and combat the heat island effects.
“I figured city tree coming from the City of Dallas and city property, I said, ‘Why not?’ Because they planted all these trees down on Jefferson at Westmoreland, and now they’re looking really pretty, and that was kind of my inspiration,” he said.
Lindenmayer admits that he was a “rogue tree planter” by adding them to the medians. However, since the trees have been planted, Dells District neighbors have joined him to care for the trees by volunteering to “adopt” and water them each summer.
He added that the City continued to maintain the medians with the trees there as well. Then, in March 2026, he noticed the trees tagged by the City.
Lindenmayer said he learned from Arturo Garcia, with the Department of Transportation and Public Works, that the City will be removing the trees. That is, unless a MOWmentum Letter of Agreement is signed.
A MOWmentum agreement would require a sponsor to accept full maintenance responsibilities for five or 10 years, beyond just providing water. The other responsibilities include removal of all debris, mowing at least once every 14 days from March through November, removal of weeds around the trees and trimming the trees and shrubs to eliminate any visibility obstructions to traffic control signals, signs, or into the rights of way of the street or sidewalk.
For that upkeep, Lindenmayer said he couldn’t see himself in retirement being able to bring his lawn mower out to the medians to mow and was told that those services would have to be contracted out.
“I said, ‘My neighborhood association doesn’t have that kind of funding,’ and his immediate response was, ‘Well, then the trees will have to be removed,’” he said.
As for the removal, Lindenmayer said there was no specific time frame given for when the trees would be removed.
“We’re maintaining them, and we just want the City to continue to mow and pick up the trash like they’ve been doing and not take the trees,” he said.
Arturo Garcia did not respond to the Oak Cliff Advocate’s emails or calls.
