Everyone I talk to about Thomas Solinsky has a different nickname for him. He’s “Nashville’s Johnny Appleseed” to some, and “The Ultimate Connector” to others. Or as country singer and “friend of Thomas” Dierks Bentley puts it, he’s “The Tree Ninja.”
Solinsky estimates that over the past 15 years he’s planted more than 40,000 trees across Tennessee and its surrounding states. He has put them in forests, by waterways, even at elephant and pig sanctuaries, but is most proud of the “urban forest” he’s cultivated across Nashville — by sidewalks, on median strips and in front of businesses and residential homes.
“He puts these trees in without people even knowing, and years later, they look around the neighborhood and think, ‘Gosh, this is all one person’s doing,’” says Bentley, who met Solinsky after stumbling upon him planting a tree while he was on a walk.
In cities like Nashville where new construction is ever-multiplying, trees counteract the urban heat island phenomenon — the temperature-raising effect of natural greenery being replaced by warmth-trapping buildings and asphalt roads. Trees aid in stormwater management and absorb emitted greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Studies also indicate that urban trees improve the mental health of surrounding residents.
“I don’t like to talk about the numbers of trees planted, really, but the impact,” says Solinsky. “Where trees have been cut down in cities, they cannot naturally drop their seeds and regenerate. A single tree has so much benefit when planted in an urban area.”
Trees planted by SoundForest outside the Frothy Monkey in 12South
Solinsky conceived his project, known formally as SoundForest, in 2008 — a time when he says next to no one in Nashville was actively planting in urban areas. Although he began his work in collaboration with local and state governments, Solinsky laments the “bureaucracy” of tree planting through official channels.
Individuals seeking to plant in Nashville’s public right-of-way must request approval from Metro Nashville, and Solinsky recalls running into a “huge backlog.”
“I had a huge area that I wanted to cover, and I wasn’t getting any response,” he says. “The wait time to get people [from Metro] to come out was so long. I was like, ‘I’m done. I need to go on my own and get these trees planted.’”
Solinsky says he hasn’t received negative feedback from the city since beginning to plant on his own terms around 2015, but he emphasizes that he closely follows the city’s street tree safety regulations.
Solinsky relies on donations and the volunteer manpower of family, friends and neighbors — from staff at local businesses to students at University School of Nashville. Frothy Monkey owner Ryan Pruitt recalls how Solinsky suggested that trees should be planted by the coffee shop’s front porch and pitched a SoundForest fundraiser at the coffee shop.
“It’s rare that Tom will have a crazy idea and then do nothing with it,” Pruitt says.
Through his SmartYards initiative, Solinsky plants trees that shade and cool residential A/C units, a strategy that can make units up to 25 percent more efficient. The program focuses on the most economically precarious city blocks in Nashville, which are also the ones with the fewest trees and most related negative health outcomes.
In 2018, Metro Nashville and the Cumberland River Compact launched the coordinated urban tree-planting campaign, Root Nashville, which currently has a dedicated funding stream of $1.5 to $2.5 million. Campaign manager Meg Morgan says the project modeled its outreach on grassroots efforts like SoundForest.
“I give props to anyone like Thomas who’s doing this work on their own,” Morgan says. “Thomas is planting trees in areas where he lives, where he has really deep connections.”
Despite environmentalists’ best efforts, the city’s most recent assessment found that Nashville’s tree canopy shrank by more than 13 percent from 2008 to 2016. Canopy-retention regulations for developers remain sparse, and legislation that would tighten tree preservation standards was withdrawn in February. Metro Water Services’ sustainability coordinator Rebecca Dohn predicts even Root Nashville’s goal of planting 500,000 trees by 2050 may not reverse canopy loss.
Solinsky says he sustains his drive by focusing on tree planting and maintenance as not only a public service or policy strategy, but a continual practice.
“Planting trees is my exercise — it’s therapeutic,” Solinsky says. “There’s more to it than just, ‘We’re planting trees for this cause.’ This is a way of life.”
When I ask Solinsky about the favorite tree he’s planted, he describes the one he buried his beloved dog Rowan under. Solinksy has dedicated trees to his children, and in honor of a community member after they died.
“There’s a saying that the best time to plant a tree was 25 years ago, and the next-best time is today,” Solinsky says when asked what he most looks forward to about SoundForest’s future. “In 25 years, I’ll look back at the trees I’m planting today and be like, ‘Dude, it’s so cool to see that they’ve grown this big.’”
