FAYETTEVILLE — Residents in the Covington Park subdivision woke last week to find workers digging holes in their front yards.

The workers, with B&A Property Maintenance, were planting trees for the city Parks and Recreation Department.

Princeton elms, Shumard oaks and thornless honeylocusts are taking root along Township Street, between Worthington Way and Kittery Lane, in northeast Fayetteville.

Trees were planted late last month along Persimmon Street, near Double Springs Road, in west Fayetteville. Next up is a stretch of Joyce Boulevard east of the post office, Ken Eastin, city urban forestor, said.

Nearly 120 trees are being planted using $22,800 in the city’s tree escrow fund. Developers who cannot preserve or replace a certain percentage of trees on property they develop are required to pay into the fund, according to the city’s tree preservation and protection ordinance.

Eastin said the purpose of the ordinance “first and foremost is to preserve what we have.”

“And then if there is anything that’s lost, to replace canopy,” he added.

Julie Council, who lives in the Covington Park subdivision, said Wednesday she was glad to see trees being planted along Township Street.

“I just think it’s great to improve our green space,” Council said. “One of the things we looked for was a neighborhood with mature trees, and I was a little disturbed that there weren’t many.”

According to a tree canopy assessment conducted last year by Plan-It Geo of Arvada, Colo., 36 percent of land in Fayetteville is shaded by trees. About 1.5 percent of the city’s tree canopy has been lost since 2002, the assessment concluded.

The tree ordinance, approved in 2001 following months of City Council discussion and heated debate about removing 51 post oaks for the Kohl’s department store, seeks to prevent further canopy loss.

Developers are required to preserve a set percentage of trees or replant trees they remove, depending on the zoning district where the development is located. If they can’t preserve or replant trees, they pay into the tree escrow fund. The number of trees they’re responsible for depends on the significance of trees that are removed. The ordinance sets a $250 fee for each tree required, plus $425 per tree for three years of maintenance.

Eastin said similar ordinances are rare in Arkansas. But, he added, other cities, such as Conway, Little Rock, North Little Rock and, most recently, Bentonville, have enacted landscaping laws.

“We’ve pretty well set a standard for tree preservation ordinances in Arkansas,” Eastin said.