By: Deborah Johnson Wood
During the last two weeks, Oakdale Neighbors wrapped up the planting of 65 trees and hundreds of flowers in effort to reduce the neighborhood’s carbon footprint, cool off the neighborhood during the hot summer months, raise property values, and slow traffic.
The City of Grand Rapids planted the first 40 trees along Kalamazoo St. in April; Katerberg VerHage Landscape planted another 25 throughout the neighborhood two weeks ago; and this week, teams of youth from the area planted the base of each new tree with flower donated by area greenhouses.
The project includes 15 tree species, many of which are native to Michigan, such as pin oak, burr oak, swamp white oak, red maple and hedge maple. To avoid the need to trim or remove trees that interfere with power lines, the group selected smaller trees for those areas, larger trees for areas with no power lines, and included bird-friendly trees such as choke cherry and juneberry.
The trees have drip irrigation bags to keep them watered, but organizers took the care of the trees a step farther by recruiting neighbors to “adopt” a tree to ensure it is properly watered and maintained.
The Dyer-Ives Foundation, the Frey Foundation, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Fuller Area Neighbors funded the $14,000 project, called Leaves of the Tree Give Life to the Nations.
Source: Tom Bulten, Oakdale Neighbors
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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