In the mid-1980’s, Peggy Sharpe began organizing with a few other tree lovers to raise funds and advocate for planting more trees on the streets of Providence. Peggy established the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment in honor of her late mother-in-law Mary Elizabeth Sharpe–who was herself an environmentalist, a self-taught landscape architect, and an advocate for countless greening projects across Providence.

The Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) was established in 1988 as a partnership between the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment, the City of Providence, and city residents, in order to ensure steady and consistent private and public funding for ongoing community-driven planting of street trees in Providence. 

As of June 2024, PNPP and the City’s Forestry Division have split, in a 50/50 match, the cost and coordination of planting over 15,500 street trees– in collaboration with hundreds of neighborhood groups and thousands of residents across the city. This effort has helped us gradually begin to replenish our street tree canopy over the past 30 years. Currently, PNPP plants an average of 500-550 street trees per year and prioritizes plantings in neighborhoods that have the lowest tree canopy cover and bear the greatest burdens of tree inequity and environmental injustice.