TreeVitalize Pittsburgh Launches Spring Planting Season

Tree­Vi­tal­ize Pitts­burgh will plant more than 600 trees in the met­ro­pol­i­tan area this spring, a move which will bring the part­ner­ship clos­er to its cur­rent goal of plant­i­ng 20,000 trees in the region.

Under the man­age­ment of the West­ern Penn­syl­va­nia Con­ser­van­cy and with the help of vol­un­teers, Tree­Vi­tal­ize Pitts­burgh will plant trees in 22 com­mu­ni­ties and neigh­bor­hoods in and around Pitts­burgh. The part­ner­ship is accept­ing reg­is­tra­tions for vol­un­teers to work at these events.

With the sup­port of five part­ners, pri­vate foun­da­tions and pub­lic agen­cies and the work of more than 4,200 vol­un­teers, Tree­Vi­tal­ize Pitts­burgh has plant­ed more than 17,000 trees since 2008. Tree­Vi­tal­ize is the prod­uct of work by WPC and its part­ners — Alleghe­ny Coun­ty, the City of Pitts­burgh, Tree Pitts­burgh and the Penn­syl­va­nia Depart­ment of Con­ser­va­tion and Nat­ur­al Resources (DCNR), which is also one of the initiative’s top fun­ders. The Heinz Endow­ments through the Breathe Project, the Richard King Mel­lon Foun­da­tion and the Col­com Foun­da­tion also pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant sup­port to the partnership.

Oth­er finan­cial sup­port was pro­vid­ed by the Pitts­burgh Foun­da­tion, the Alcoa Foun­da­tion, Direct Ener­gy and the Home Depot Foundation.

“The trees being plant­ed ben­e­fit com­mu­ni­ties in a num­ber of ways, includ­ing pro­duc­ing oxy­gen, puri­fy­ing the air, shel­ter­ing wildlife, decreas­ing ener­gy usage and increas­ing prop­er­ty val­ues,” said Thomas D. Saun­ders, WPC’s pres­i­dent and chief exec­u­tive offi­cer. “All told, Pittsburgh’s street trees pro­vide $2.4 mil­lion annu­al­ly in eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal benefits.”

For more infor­ma­tion about vol­un­teer­ing at any Tree­Vi­tal­ize event, call 412–586-2386 or email trees@paconserv.org.