The Two Trees on Maple Street

In 2019, the city of Detroit planted two identical red maple saplings on either side of Woodward Avenue as part of an urban regreening project. Same species, same nursery, same week of planting. But one was set into a narrow concrete planter box on the sidewalk, its roots boxed in by asphalt and storm drains. The other was planted thirty feet away in a vacant lot where an old water main had been leaking for years, saturating the soil deep underground.…