Japan is giving the United States 250 new cherry trees to help replace the hundreds that are being ripped out this summer as construction crews work to repair the crumbling seawall around the capital’s Tidal Basin.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made the announcement as President Joe Biden welcomed him to the White House on Wednesday for an official visit and state dinner. Biden said the gift is meant to mark the 250th anniversary of the U.S. in 2026, adding, “Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving.”
In 1912, first lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador to the United States, planted two Yoshino cherry trees on the northern bank of the Potomac River’s Tidal Basin. They were part of the 3,000 such trees Japan gave the U.S. in a symbol of the two countries’ friendship.
This is a temporary solution to a climate change problem. They can’t keep building seawalls. The Potomac will flood and the brackish water will kill many of the famed cherry trees.
We get it, everything sucks. Nothing is allowed to ever be good, even little things.
It seems that stretch of the Potomac doesn’t get much if any salt. It’s way up there and flows rather well, typically.
The tidal influence ends effectively at chain bridge, but they don’t call it the Tidal Basin for nothing, presumably.
Not to say salt couldn’t happen if there is a sustained drought + more sea level rise + a strong wind from the SE (Yes, that’s a big influence on the tidal fluctuation in the Chesapeake!)
Fun fact, sakura trees typically live to 20-40yo, and the DC Japanese Grove is more than 150yo now. They must be well cared for, or something else is going on.