Made in the shade: On planting trees to combat climate change in Hershey

Our street tree, Gordon Gingko

Inside the downtown Hershey bungalow that we love and call home, Sara and I are joined by our son, Jack, and tabby cat, Sneezy.

A fifth member of the family, Gordon, lives outside. He’s a Gingko tree, his name playing off Michael Douglas’ character, Gordon Gekko, in the movie “Wall Street.”

To Gekko’s ugly 1980s mantra, “Greed is good,” we counter, “Green is good,” especially when it comes from trees — and not just for aesthetic reasons.

Now seems like a particularly good time to plant many more trees, here, there and everywhere, given their mitigation value in the face of higher temperatures and increased flooding wrought by climate change.

This is a global issue, but Hershey is where I live and work. Focusing on the challenge at the local level makes it seem so much more manageable.

Green canopy

This fall marks the 14th anniversary of the record flooding in Hershey caused by Tropical Storm Lee. I recall Sara’s treacherous journey to pick up Jack at Hershey Elementary School and the images of the under-water restaurants on Hersheypark Drive.

The flooding was a near-perfect segue to the release that fall of an independent report, published in the Patriot-News newspaper, from a nonprofit called Save Our Land, Save Our Towns Inc. The report was called, “Hershey, Pennsylvania: Smart Growth … Continuing the Legacy.”

Focused on land use and quality of life in Hershey, the report noted that a “green canopy” of trees over pavement and buildings cools the air and reduces stormwater runoff.

“One mature canopy tree can reduce stormwater runoff by more than 1,000 gallons per year and provide the cooling power of several large air conditioners,” according to the report.

The 2011 flooding, the report concluded, made a focus on stormwater management “more urgent than ever.”

That urgency remains: see also Hershey flooding in 2018 and 2021.

‘For those who are coming after’

Trees were important to the town’s founder and namesake, Milton Hershey.

“There is not a person alive who should not plant a tree, not for the shade that you’ll enjoy, but for those who are coming after.”

That quote, attributed to Milton Hershey, appears on the websites of Derry Township, which encompasses the unincorporated community of Hershey, and that of his greatest legacy, the Milton Hershey School.

The village of Hershey, founded in 1903, comprises less than two square miles within Derry Township, which dates to 1729 and totals 27 square miles. For all intents and purposes, when locals talk about Hershey, they mean the entire township.

Street names in Hershey’s core include Elm, Linden, Maple, Cedar. Vintage postcards reflect the tall evergreens that populated downtown sidewalks and, after the trolleys stopped running in 1946, the Chocolate Avenue medians.

The township’s first street tree ordinance dates to 1960; the township established a Shade Tree Commission in 2019. The township requires a permit for the removal of any street tree and that a replacement tree be planted within a year.

I’ve had direct involvement with a couple of tree-planting efforts since the Save Our Land, Save Our Towns report came out. Sara, Jack and I helped plant trees along the bike path on Waltonville Road prior to COVID, and we adopted Gordon in 2022 via a free program offered through Derry Township and the state. Volunteers even planted Gordon for us.

Slowing rain, reducing flooding

The environmental benefit of trees is unmistakable. But you don’t have to be a tree-hugger to recognize that the economic value of trees is great, too. Cleaning up after storms is a costly hassle, and air-conditioning is expensive.

Tree canopies, Penn State Extension noted in this explainer video, act like giant green umbrellas that intercept rain that otherwise would fall to the ground. Much of what is intercepted evaporates off leaf surfaces. The canopies also slow down rain, reducing flooding.

A large deciduous (flat leaf) tree canopy can capture 1,000 gallons of water each year. Better yet, a large coniferous (evergreen) tree can capture two to three times that amount because it is “in leaf” year-round and has more leaf surface area.

Soil with trees allows 10 inches of rain per hour to infiltrate the ground, compared with only four inches on lawns.

Yet for all of the good that trees do, prominent areas of Hershey today are conspicuously devoid of them.

In early 2022, I noticed that the Hershey Co. had cemented over tree cutouts on the western and northern sides of Hershey’s old community building, aka 14 E. Chocolate Ave., which was then corporate offices.

At that time, I reached out to Hershey Co.’s customer service via an online chat.

“In my walks and runs around downtown Hershey,” I wrote, “I noticed that tree cutouts on the sidewalks along Hershey's properties have been filled in with concrete. Given the effects of climate change and Hershey's stated commitment to fighting climate change, I can't understand why trees were eliminated from the sidewalks.”

The response I received:

“The reason for the tree cutouts being filled with concrete is that it is very difficult to grow trees due to the salt that is applied to the road surface during the winter months. When plowed, the snow along with the salt is pushed onto to the trees, making trees difficult to grow.  We opted to put planters in place where the trees were removed. We do have an initiative to plant additional trees in more suitable areas along Route 422.”

While I thanked the company for its response, I challenged the suggestion that salt could have been a factor on the western side because there was no adjacent road.

(Hershey Co. subsequently sold 14 E. Chocolate to the Hershey Trust Co. As of July 2025, that whole area is a construction site as the building and adjacent Hershey Theatre undergo massive renovation.)

We can all do more

This is not to pick on Hershey Co. or just downtown Hershey. Less than a half-mile south of the downtown square (Chocolate and Cocoa avenues) lies the township-owned playground Cocoa Castle, which was overhauled in the past decade.

Durable and eco-friendly PVC replaced the rotted wood that comprised the playground, but trees weren’t part of the plans. I pity the children and parents who bake in that denuded destination.

Next to it stands the Derry Township Community Center, which opened in June 2022 at a cost of $32 million. It came with a host of amenities, including indoor pools, fitness center, gym, senior center.

However, little thought seems to have been given to creating shade around the 13,000-square-foot outdoor pool. What shade there is comes from man-made structures, not trees.

Our store, at the nonprofit Hershey History Center, is about a mile north of the from downtown. The history center property has ties to Milton Hershey, whose eponymous school once operated its Pinehurst residence there.

It’s a beautiful property, but it wants for shade on the front lawn where we hold our monthly makers markets. I place as many vendors as possible along the property line to take advantage of the neighbor’s tree shade.

So we all can and should do more — and at a faster pace — homeowners, businesses, nonprofits and governments alike. A local political candidate looking for a grassroots issue to run on could do worse than to focus on tree roots.

With many more trees, we can reduce stormwater runoff, improve air quality, create cooling shade, improve neighborhood aesthetics, increase property values.

Trees are our allies in the face of climate change.

Gordon Gingko is right. Green is good.