LETTERS

Get your trees from Neighborhood Planting Project

By ANGIE KOZIARA
Posted 1/19/22

Trees, trees, trees. The Cranston Neighborhood Planting Project, in association with Rhode Island Tree Council, wants to help you plant more trees. These trees are FREE to you and planted for you by professionals. Trees increase your home's value with

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LETTERS

Get your trees from Neighborhood Planting Project

Posted

To the Editor;

Trees, trees, trees. The Cranston Neighborhood Planting Project, in association with Rhode Island Tree Council, wants to help you plant more trees. These trees are FREE to you and planted for you by professionals.

Trees increase your home’s value with beauty and shade and the cooled yard helps lower energy use. These potential giants filter air and rainwater of toxins, help control flooding and erosion and reduce greenhouse gasses that cause climate change. According to the Rhode Island Tree Council, the trees in R.I. absorb 500,000 metric tons of carbon/year.

They are one of the best legacies you can leave to address climate change. Do not get me wrong, climate change is one of our biggest world issues and we need wind and solar, and carbon sequestering plants. The latter need maintenance and need to be renewed. The trees we plant now will live beyond our lifetime and, aside from maybe two years of attentive watering, they are self-sufficient. The older the tree, the more carbon it removes. That is a legacy.

I have a very old maple in front of my house. The house is over 100 years; I do not know the exact age of the tree, but it looks 100 years, and it is the first thing in the morning that I look outside to see how it has managed the night. Studies have shown that trees help one’s well being, and Native Americans felt their spirit(s) as you may on a forest walk or maybe just appreciating a larger neighborhood tree.

It is surprising that more people do not know about The Cranston Neighborhood Tree Project which began in 2015. These free trees are set back trees planted away from urban sidewalks; they are not maintained by the city but are yours to help continue its growth with care and love. Digsafe evaluates your property after an application of interest has been submitted via the R.I. Tree Council website or a phone call and a tree is selected. A local nursery plants the trees, leaving instructions on maintaining these 1-1/2 to 2-inch caliper trees. You may be contacted regularly to remind you to water but these trees are bigger than saplings and will take hold quickly. The Tree Council typically selects native species such as red oak and red maple. The tree/nursery specialists will determine which tree best suits your site.

If you live on rental property and feel a tree could enhance the property, your landlord can be contacted to plant the tree. You can contact Warren (w.p.heyman@att.net) and he would gladly help with the process.

The Cranston Tree Project has planted approximately 250 trees for residents, businesses, schools and city parks. You can have your tree for, repeat FREE. Go to ritree.org/Cranston to find information along with an application for Cranston Neighborhood Planting Program.

Or call 764-5885 and you will be given information about your new tree. Planting is early this year, starting in March, because of climate change, so hurry and reserve now.

Angie Koziara

Member of WestBay Land Trust

Cranston Tree Committee

trees, neighborhood planting

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