College Park received 50 new trees as part of Dallas Park and Recreation’s Branching Out Program that aims to create healthier communities by planting trees at Dallas parks. The planting was sponsored by Texas Trees Foundation, Spirit Realty, Verizon, and The Arbor Day Foundation – the world’s largest membership nonprofit dedicated to planting trees.
“One of the things the Arbor Day Foundation does best is to help local planting partners take meaningful action in their community to plant trees,” said Dan Lambe, Chief Executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “We plant trees to improve the lives of people around us. We’re happy to help Texas Trees Foundation foster a sense of community pride by planting trees.”
Trees offer vast benefits for the community at large. Thriving urban forests bolster human health, from encouraging physical activity to reducing respiratory illnesses stemming from air pollution. Urban trees filter the air by removing pollution which improves a city’s overall air quality. They also reduce runoff of sediment, pollutants, and organic matter into streams, improving our water quality. Trees have also been shown to reduce crime, lower stress levels, and develop community pride.
“Verizon is proud to have sponsored this event in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation to help establish the College Park area tree canopy,” said James Gowen, chief sustainability officer and senior vice president, supply chain operations. “Since 2009, Verizon has been committed to reforestation. We have planted 7.8 million trees in 18 countries and 35 states. This contributes to our public goal of planting 20 million trees by 2030. Amid the climate crisis, it will take all of us working together to facilitate true change.”
The Branching Out program began in 2018, in an effort to reforest and beautify Dallas’ aging urban canopy. For each planting the Dallas Park and Recreation, the Texas Trees Foundation, organizational donors, and community volunteers work collaboratively to strategically plant trees with the intentions to increase the current Dallas tree canopy coverage, while providing shade and other health benefits.
“Spirit is honored to support Texas Trees Foundation and to have played a role in improving the tree canopy area in College Park,” said Jackson Hsieh, President and CEO of Spirit Realty. “We are committed to making the communities in which we operate a better place to live and work and we are proud to support this effort in partnership with Texas Trees Foundation for North Texans. In 2021, we donated over $30,000 to local environmental organizations and we look forward to continuing our efforts in 2022.”
