It’ll take 45 “forests” to double Chattanooga’s trees.
A new city program, Take Root, intends to ask donors to buy 1,500 trees for the city. The price tag: $450,000.
Donations come in a variety of levels — from a twig for $25 to a $10,000-and-up “forest.”
The goal is to double the city’s tree canopy, said Urban Forester Gene Hyde.
In 2006, Mayor Ron Littlefield signed the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, committing Chattanooga to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 7 percent based on the city’s 1990 levels.
A single tree stores 13 pounds of carbon every year, Mr. Hyde said. Trees also reduce stormwater runoff, save energy by providing summer shade, emit oxygen and beautify the area, he said.
Take Root began last year, when the owners of downtown’s Chattz Coffee asked how to help the city plant trees.
Select Trees of Athens, Ga., (www.selecttrees.com) also offered free or discounted trees if the city could form a plan.
Then, members of the 2007-08 Leadership Chattanooga class asked how they could do a “green” project for the city, Mr. Hyde said. Leadership Chattanooga is a Chamber of Commerce program. Forty up-and-coming city leaders divide into teams and create a project over a year.
The newly dubbed “green team” of Paul Belk, Millie Callaway, Anita Polk-Conley, Rafe Goldbach, Mike Griffin, Janis Hashe, Helen Johnson and Thomas Rusk created the program.
“Everybody in the group felt strongly about environmental issues, so we started with the idea of planting flowers everywhere. Gene Hyde said flowers are great, but trees are even better. They last longer, and we can cover a lot of space,” Ms. Johnson said.
Take Root’s ideas rooted as the team worked with the city’s volunteer Tree Commission. They also recruited assistance from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s graphic design department, Community Foundation, Urban Century Institute and Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Ms. Johnson said.
Marketing materials were designed by students in Leslie Jensen-Inman’s design class at UTC.
“It was awesome to work with the people of Leadership Chattanooga,” said student Nicholas Turner, 26. “And I think we’re one of the first cities to adopt a program like this. We’re hoping other cities will get out there and do stuff similar to it.”
The city sent an intern with a backpack and GIS system to look at “every available tree planting place from Central Avenue to the riverfront and the Tennessee River to the interstate,” Mr. Hyde said.
The intern came back with 1,700 or 1,800 places. Mr. Hyde “whittled it down” to 1,500 places.
A tree species and cost has been assigned to each spot. More than 30 species and cultivars were selected, including natives and nonnative species.
Donations are funneled through the Community Foundation, Ms. Johnson said. The program officially launched on Tennessee Arbor Day, March 7, with the planting of a willow oak at Battle Academy.
“Trees are an incredible green machine. They do all kinds of neat, cool wonderful things for our city,” Mr. Hyde said. “Their stormwater, anti-air pollution, cooling benefits are worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Can you imagine Chattanooga without trees? It would be like the Gobi Desert.”
FOR MORE INFO
Learn more about the Take Root program by calling (423) 757-7283 or visiting takerootchattanooga.com.
