Million Trees Miami got a boost from a special Mother’s Day weekend tree planting in West Kendall on May 10.
Both moms and sons were among a large group of volunteers who aided a countywide effort by planting 25 young trees that will begin shading a walkway in Wild Lime Park in the future.
Commissioner Juan C. Zapata arranged the special “Roots of My Trees” tribute over the Mother’s Day weekend as a time to “honor loved ones and celebrate mothers and all they provide.”
Two other area May plantings include a “greening up” of Paciencia Park at the South Miami Metrorail station by Friends of the M-Path, supporters who met first at the Brickell Station to ride to South Miami for the special event.
In Coconut Grove, Treehouse Acupuncture hosted a Coconut Grove canopy project on May 21 celebrating protection of trees along SW 27th Avenue.
Tree plantings like those are financed through a partnership with Miami-Dade Parks Foundation and Million Trees Miami, aided by donations to the nonprofit organization to defray purchases and maintain newly planted trees.
The Million Trees Miami campaign is a community-wide effort to plant one million trees by 2020 to achieve a 30 percent tree canopy throughout Miami-Dade County. Shaded tree canopies now hover around 10- 15 percent on average throughout Miami- Dade with some urban area coverages as low as 1 or 2 percent, a statistic the board seeks to double over the next six years
The program was developed by the county’s Community Image Advisory Board in part to replace historical losses in canopy cover due to hurricanes, citrus canker and urban development.
Targets set for 2020: 50 percent tree canopies in suburban residential areas; 25 percent in urban residential zones; 10 percent in the urban core, altogether creating an overall 28.3 percent coverage countywide.
The county has committed to planting 30 percent of a million tree goal (300,000 trees) leaving an additional 700,000 needed to reach the 2020 goal. The board continues to reach out to cities, schools, universities, corporations and resident groups to join in the effort
In April, the board announced winning a “Green Streets” $20,000 grant from TD Bank which recently opened a new branches on Kendall Drive. Part of the fund is ticketed to plant 20 trees at the Northside Transit Station at SW 79th Street in partnership with Citizens for a Better South Florida.
For information to sponsor and support the program, visit greenup@miamidade.gov or call 305-375-2103.
