Expanding the urban forest
From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com
Some other happy news about public-private partnerships came in Nicholas Boke’s charming Nov. 8 ecoRI News article headlined “Community Togetherness: Planting an Urban Forest’’.
It’s about the highly successful Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP), which is charged with maintaining and expanding the city’s “urban forest.’’ My family has fond memories of the tree planting in a related program in front of our house 25 years ago. The sapling then was about 5 feet high. Now it’s over 20 feet high and has turned into a very popular and lush abode for various bird species.
The PNPP is a joint venture of the private Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Providence Neighborhood Planting Program Fund, the city’s Parks Department and local residents, who get lessons from the program in how to plant and nurture the trees. It’s enlightened self-interest: Trees help clean the air, reduce heating bills in the winter and air-conditioning bills in the summer and their beauty raises real-estate values.
City Forester Doug Still told Mr. Boke that the program plants a total of about 500 trees a year in 25 neighborhoods while the city directly plants another 200. For more information, please hit this link for information about the program:
To read the ecoRI news piece, please hit this link:
https://www.ecori.org/green-groups/2017/11/8/community-togetherness-planting-planning-an-urban-forest