In an effort to expand Miami-Dade County’s tree canopy by leveraging local resources, Neat Streets Miami awarded the City of South Miami a Street Tree Matching Grant for its Tree Planting Initiative in the amount of $3,37.50.
In its fifth year, Neat Streets Miami’s street tree program awarded 19 organizations matching grants to advance the Million Trees Miami initiative, a community-wide effort to achieve a 30 percent tree canopy for Miami-Dade County.
South Miami’s commitment to keeping our city green is not only smart for the environment, but it significantly beautifies our streets and parks. This adds to the quality of life for our residents and helps us preserve the welcoming hometown feel that we enjoy in the “City of Pleasant Living.”
Tree Types
As part of this project, the City is planting a mix of species including Dahoon Holly, Pigeon Plum, Green Buttonwood, and Marlberry trees.
Installed by M & M Landscaping, the trees have been planted mostly along the right-of-way areas to the Marshall Williamson Park Corridor and other areas where trees have either been damaged or have died.
Made possible through the County’s Tree Trust Fund, program preference was given to areas with low tree canopy and low-to-moderate income populations.
Benefits of Trees
Trees provide multiple environmental, social, and economic benefits to our community:
- They improve air quality by absorbing pollutants and particulate matter from the air.
- Leafy green tree canopies help save energy by providing reducing the amount of sunlight reaching our streets, lawns, and parking areas, resulting in lower summer temperatures.
- Trees also reduce stormwater runoff as leaves and stems intercept rainwater, hold it, and release it slowly so that it can be better absorbed by the soil.
Million Trees Miami & Neat Streets Miami launched this initiative as a community-wide effort to achieve a 30 percent tree canopy cover for Miami-Dade County. Neat Streets Miami is a multi-jurisdictional county board dedicated to the maintenance and beautification of transportation corridors, gateways and connections.
Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation & Open Spaces is the third largest county park system in the U.S., consisting of 278 parks and 13,769 acres of land. It is one of the most unique park and recreation systems in the world and focused on placemaking, health and fitness, and conservation and stewardship. Visit Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Please visit the City of South Miami Website for more information.
