GREENSBORO -- Shade from trees in the Glenwood neighborhood provides a welcome respite from the sun when Elizabeth Keathley rides her bike home after teaching at nearby UNCG.
She's called the community home for the past three years and thought it had a fair amount of trees. But when Keathley went out with other residents to drum up support for a neighborhood tree-planting grant, she heard the stories of older residents.
They reminisced about decades past when streets were lined with fruit and nut trees that attracted birds and other small animals that scampered underneath.
The neighborhood has lost trees over the years -- some to development, others to age or damage from ice and wind storms. And Glenwood will get help making things a little greener with a NeighborWoods grant it recently received.
The grant will provide 150 trees for planting in areas chosen by neighborhood residents, and that they'll help plant.
"It's a wonderful thing for our neighborhood. It's about bringing neighbors together to work together and take ownership in things," said Keathley, chairwoman of the neighborhood's beautification committee.
That strong neighborhood support made Glenwood stand out among the three neighborhoods who applied for the grant, said Melissa Begley, Greensboro's city arborist.
Members of the Greensboro Beautiful Urban Forestry Committee selected Glenwood as the first neighborhood to receive the grant, created by the city and Greensboro Beautiful.
Eastside Park was home to a NeighborWoods pilot program last year.
The tree planting grant is part of a public-private partnership to replace trees lost across Greensboro because of development, age or storm damage.
Neighborhoods can apply for up to 150 trees through the grant, which will be awarded each spring. Community donations cover the cost of buying the trees, Begley said.
Efforts are under way to raise $50,000 to help finance the program for the next five years.
Begley works with residents to help them pick trees that will grow best and makes sure volunteers get pointers on healthy tree planting. She hopes to organize the Glenwood tree planting day for sometime in November.
"They really demonstrated that there's a lot of support in the neighborhood for this project," Begley said. "We felt that it would have a big, positive impact."
Glenwood volunteers went door to door talking with residents who didn't have a chance to give input on the project at neighborhood association meetings, Keathley said. And volunteers took suggestions on the best spots to plant trees.
Some of those spots are along South Aycock and West Florida streets, at neighborhood entrances and along a creek that runs through the neighborhood, she said. They also hope to plant flowering trees at two community parks.
"It's more than just a beautification project," Keathley said. "It's also an outreach project to get people more involved in the neighborhood." |
