Street trees are crucial to reducing the urban heat island effect and storm-water run-off, filtering the air, providing shade, and visually softening the hardness of concrete and buildings. In many narrow streets of Washington DC, trees are in constant danger: with pedestrians trampling over them, the soil gets compacted and hurts the tree roots. This grate provides an essential protection for the roots and thus the health of trees, many of them age-old. These grates do more: they also function as a way-finding device. The cartographic pattern on the grate can be customized uniquely to a location adding to the overall charm and character of the public environment.