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Detroit growing a little greener with latest crop of trees
The greening of Detroit continues to push forward along the city's goal of planting 75,000 trees in five years. The partnership between the city, DTE, and several other local environmental groups helped plant 8,000 trees in 2022 and plan to scale up their plantings in the years to come.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - The partnership aiming to green Detroit, cool its neighborhoods, and combat climate change was hard at work Thursday planting more of the tens of thousands of trees planned for the city.
With an objective of staking 75,000 into the ground in five years, the Greening of Detroit nonprofit has been knocking on doors, engaging community groups, and emphasizing the importance of canopies in cities.
And as the group's president and CEO puts it, the marshaling of trees goes beyond just the streets they're planted on.
"That's one good thing about putting 75,000 trees in the ground. We have an opportunity to create jobs. These trees have to be planted and they have to be maintained," said Lionel Bradford.
"We're scaling up each year. In our first year, we did 8,000 and we will continue to scale up each year to meet that 75,000 mark," said Whitney Smith, a reforestation manager with the city.
The first year was 2022. This fall, thousands more will be planted.
"It's a lot of trees actually. But we're getting there, slowly for surely, we're all working together," said Jody Mceary a volunteer. "I told them, as long as we work together, every tree will get put in."
The trees will provide shade, fresh air, and noise reduction. Plus, they look pretty. And in a city whose trees have been devastated by Dutch Elm Disease and Emerald Ash Borer before being removed, it's a badly needed resource.
"I think it's super powerful. It might seem like a small thing, but in the long term, like I said, as the trees get older and stronger, our air will get fresher and asthma rates will hopefully go down," said Cidney Calloway, who grew up in North Rosedale Park.
For more information, go to www.greeningofdetroit.com