Houston, TX Million Trees + Houston

Type: Program

Status: Announced on 10/6/08

Source File: http://www.houstontx.gov/mayor/press/20081006.html

Description:

Mayor Bill White and the Houston Parks Department today joined Trees for Houston, the Texas Department of Transportation, Houston’s Quality of Life Coalition, the Greater Houston Partnership and numerous others in announcing a collaborative effort – Million Trees + Houston -- to plant 1 million trees in the Houston area within the next five years and a corporate gift-giving program to help plant trees.

The trees will be planted by governmental, civic and business groups throughout the area. A dedicated website, http://www.milliontreesplushouston.org, which will be up in late October 2008, has been established by Trees for Houston to provide dynamic details and information on tree-planting progress and tree totals as the initiative progresses.

Houston’s urban forest is one of our city’s most valuable environmental assets. The city’s forest canopy (made up of street trees, park trees, and trees on public, private and commercial land) cleans our air, reduces pollutants, cools our city during the summer, increases property value, and encourages neighborhood revitalization. Also, planting the hardiest of our native trees serves as a buffer against high winds and helps reduce damage to surrounding properties. The initiative takes on more significance in the wake of Hurricane Ike, which has destroyed the number of old-growth trees in the area.

With the help of the Greater Houston Partnership, the corporate community also has engaged in this effort with a new Gift of Trees program, in which companies can donate esplanade trees on behalf of clients, customers and employees during the upcoming holiday season. For more information, visit http://www.treesforhouston.org. Deadline for ordering is November 15, 2008.

The Million Trees + Houston campaign planted a ceremonial tree on the Westcott at Prague Esplanade near Memorial Park. The esplanades show an example of what future esplanades could look like through the Million Trees campaign.