Pepco Offers 2,000 Free Trees for Arbor Day

Just in time for Arbor Day (on April 26), Pepco is giving away 2,000 free trees to customers in Maryland and Washington, DC.  

Households may reserve up to two trees each at www.arborday.org/pepco, and the program will continue until all 2,000 trees have been reserved. Reserving a tree is easy—simply enter in your address at www.arborday.org/pepco, and you'll be guided via an interactive map tool to select the types of trees that will work well for your property, and the locations for those trees.

The 2-to-4-foot trees will then be delivered to your property at an appropriate planting time.

In exchange for the free trees, tree recipients are expected to care for the trees and plant them in the location chosen in the interactive map tool.

This is the third year that Pepco, as an Arbor Day Foundation partner, is offering the free trees through the foundation's Energy-Saving Trees program, which conserves energy and reduces household electricity bills through strategic tree planting, according to a Pepco news release.

The Arbor Day Foundation calculated that the 2,000 trees will produce an estimated more than $380,000 in energy savings within 20 years.

"The Energy-Saving Trees program saves money and the environment," Pepco President Thomas H. Graham said in the news release.

"More than $380,000 in energy savings within 20 years is a substantial benefit to our customers and the region," he added.

The Energy-Saving Trees online interactive map tool was created by the Arbor Day Foundation and the Davey Institute (a division of the Davey Tree Expert Co.), and uses peer-reviewed scientific research from the USDA Forest Service’s i-Tree Software to calculate estimated benefits, according to the news release.