 |
 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2004
Rochester NeighborWoods Kicks Off May
12
NeighborWoods To Plant 150 Trees In Rochester’s
Sesquicentennial Year
ROCHESTER, MN—Planting one acre of
trees can remove as much carbon dioxide from
the air as a car puts into the air by driving
26,000 miles. To increase Rochester’s
awareness of tree planting for conservation,
and to celebrate our city’s 150th birthday,
RPU, Rochester Neighborhood Resource Center
(RNRC) and the Committee on Urban Design and
Environment (CUDE) will host a kick-off rally
for “Rochester NeighborWoods: A Sesquicentennial
Project To Plant 150 Trees in our City’s
Boulevards” on May 12 from 1:30-3 p.m.
at the RCTC Heintz Center Auditorium.
The event is open to the public with no charge
for admission. For space reservations, please
call 507-288-0067.
At the event, project representatives will speak
about why trees are important to Rochester,
specific threats to our city forest, tree planting
grants available for neighborhood associations,
and much more.
Rochester NeighborWoods will be funded in part
by a Minnesota ReLeaf grant, awarded to the
City of Rochester by the Department of Natural
Resources (DNR). This grant will be used to
design and implement a community forest management
system for the city’s four oldest organized
neighborhoods. Elements of the project include
creating an inventory of core-area neighborhoods,
educating citizens, strategically planting and
caring for trees, and establishing a framework
for assisting core-area neighborhood associations
with forestry initiatives consistent with the
community forest plan.
This Minnesota ReLeaf grant project will enable
the partnership to minimize urban warming and
reduce the need for space cooling (like air
conditioning in the summer, a major energy demand
contributor). The two-year project is designed
to increase our capacity to maintain a healthy
and growing urban forest.
Major underwriters of the project are RPU, RNRC,
CUDE, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources,
and Maier Forest and Tree Company. |
|
|
|
