Dear Tree Friends,
We just wanted to share some information with you about how we are moving ahead with our Spring Tree Planting season, given the dramatically changed circumstances we all find ourselves in.
If you’ve ever participated in PNPP Neighborhood Street Tree Plantings, you know that they are delightfully social gatherings, which inherently involve a lot of physical proximity between neighbors and volunteers…not exactly something we can “embrace” right now!
However, while we will not be able to hold our usual form of communal neighborhood plantings, we have been coordinating closely with our partners at the Parks Department and the Mayor’s Office to adapt our plans, and we are happy to report that we will still be able to safely plant approximately 240 street trees across the city over the coming month! Tree recipients who are able to–working only within their household “pods”–will plant trees in front of their homes, businesses or community spaces, with lots of remote training and guidance provided by the PNPP Team. The awesome Forestry Crew will also be working in safe, socially distanced teams to deliver the trees and support us in planting a portion of them.
We are incredibly grateful to our awesome Tree Leaders and planting participants who have been so adaptive and flexible as we’ve redesigned the season together, midstream. We are glad we can still create an opportunity for Spring tree recipients to do something positive, concrete, physical and in service of our collective urban forest–right outside their doors!
On the eve of Arbor Day and as we mark the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day this week–and as the disparities in COVID19’s impacts and its links to air pollution and environmental justice emerge–we know how important it still is to keep working in whatever ways we can to create a more equitably green, healthy, and resilient city for all of us.
While you may miss us bugging you to come out and help plant trees this season–take comfort in the fact that our PVD Urban Forest will still be getting a new batch of trees this Spring. And don’t worry…we’ll bug you twice as hard when we are next able to lean on our planting volunteers!!!
Please take good care of yourselves and those around you, and we look forward to the next time we can meet out in the urban forest.
-Team PNPP
