City Councilors Announce Tree Planting Projects as Part of NeighborWoods Program
August 12, 2020
Today, City Councilors Isaac Benton, Pat Davis, and Trudy Jones announced upcoming NeighborWoods projects in each of their Districts. The NeighborWoods program helps to restore our City’s urban canopy by planting street trees in our neighborhoods. Because of the high level of neighborhood involvement required for the projects, NeighborWoods is also an effective community-building program.
In Council District 2, the North Campus neighborhood project will be the 7th NeighborWoods project since the program was piloted in 2016. Other neighborhoods in District 2 that have participated include South Broadway, Santa Barbara Martineztown, and Sawmill.
“Today we are at the home of a previous tree recipient in the pilot neighborhood of Wells Park and we’re looking forward to providing many more here in District 2 and throughout the City,” said Councilor Benton. “NeighborWoods help our resilience in the face of climate change while building neighborhood community.”
In Council District 6, Parkland Hills will be joining the South San Pedro, Trumbull Village, Elder Homestead, University Heights, and Victory Hills neighborhoods as the latest recipient of a NeighborWoods grant.
“The NeighborWoods program not only increases our tree canopy, but strengthens the roots of our neighborhoods by bringing neighbors together to plant thousands of new trees,” said Councilor Davis. “I’m happy to partner with Tree NM and the hundreds of community members who have participated to make Albuquerque a cooler, greener, and healthier city.”
Council District 8 is having its second planting this fall in the Oso Grande neighborhood. They follow the John B. Robert neighborhood who planted trees last fall. These were two of the hottest neighborhoods in District 8.
“The NeighborWoods program is doing great things for our communities and our city,” said Councilor Jones. “It is truly a wonderful program that I will continue to support. Their mission is extremely important as Albuquerque has lost nearly 3 percent of its tree canopy in the last few years.”
NeighborWoods projects include assistance with selecting, planting, and maintaining up to 100 street trees along street fronts their neighborhood. The neighborhood commits to providing volunteers to conduct neighborhood outreach, attend tree education classes, plant trees, and water and maintain trees. NeighborWoods is a collaboration between the City of Albuquerque, the US Forest Service, New Mexico State Forestry, Tree New Mexico, local tree growers, neighborhood leaders, and local landscape architects to enhance our urban forest.
“Tree NM would like to thank the City Councilors for their commitment to trees and the environmental, safety, health, and energy saving benefits that trees provide,” said Shannon Horst, Executive Director of Tree NM. “We also appreciate their support of the ABQ NeighborWoods program which promotes community building through planting trees in their districts.”
Tree NM staff are already reaching out to residents in these neighborhoods to identify tree planting locations and recruit volunteers.