When it comes to trees, the folks at
Center City District don't mess
around. The group maintains about 750 street trees and, with their
redesign of Dilworth Plaza set to get rolling after the first of the
year, that number is about to get a whole lot bigger. But that hasn't
slowed them down one bit. This week, the group announced the first event
in the
Plant! Philadelphia series, a planting initiative designed to
increase green space and involve Philadelphians in creating it.
On
Thursday, Dec. 2, a group of students from
Abraham Lincoln Academy's Environmental Academy program met with CCD officials to help plant two
new trees. The first set down in front of Thomas Jefferson's famous
Graff House, where he wrote the Declaration of Independence. The other
went on a treeless block at 6th and Chestnut. Along the way, the
students learned some history of the area as well as the value of tree
planting.
"There can never be enough trees because they do so much for our urban
environment," says CCD VP of Planning Nancy Goldenberg. "But beyond what
private developers do, this program is specifically for street trees.
Those are something that every tourist, every visitor, every resident,
every employee benefits from."
The program came through a donation from the
Dow Chemical Company,
helping CCD buy, plant and maintain the two young Hackberry trees.
Goldenberg hopes other businesses follow suit to help improve on CCD's
current planting schedule and get the city to more healthy green levels.
"We plant about 60 new trees each year because of drought or they get
hit by trucks or whatever," says CCD VP of Planning Nancy Goldenberg.
"Plant! Philadelphia is an effort to involve Philadelphia people and
businesses in that effort and help the city reach its goal of planting
300,000 trees by 2015."
Source: Nancy Goldenberg, Center City District
Writer: John Steele