A Thousand Trees, A Million Leaves Mark ‘Fall For Your Park’

The clang of rakes and shovels rang through the parks and streets of Philadelphia on Nov. 21, a day of wide-ranging activities that linked the “circle of life” for the city’s trees.

The 10th annual Fall For Your Park, an event coordinated by Philadelphia Green, the urban revitalization program of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS),  focused on leaf collection and mulching at 34 neighborhood parks this year.
           
Local officials and groups of volunteers converged on the beautiful Campbell Square in Port Richmond for a giant leaf cleanup. Mayor Michael Nutter joined PHS President Jane G. Pepper; Philadelphia Green Senior Director Joan Reilly; Parks and Recreation Commissioner Michael DiBerardinis; Cindy Adams Dunn, deputy secretary for conservation and technical services at the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources; and Mickey Flaville, leader of the Friends of Campbell Square, in thanking the participants for their work and looking forward to future greening efforts throughout the city.

Preparing neighborhood parks for the colder months was the message of the day, as volunteers collected fallen leaves for composting and spreading around tree trunks. The composted leaves preserve nutrients and retain moisture for trees through the winter.
 
Nov. 21 also was the first day of a massive, two-day tree-planting effort in Philadelphia. TreeVitalize, a public-private partnership launched by DCNR and led by PHS in Southeastern Pennsylvania, planted 1,000 trees along streets, in parks and schoolyards over the weekend. More than 30 Tree Tenders groups trained by PHS conducted the plantings with the help of 2,000 volunteers.

Mayor Nutter’s Greenworks plan sets a goal of increasing the city’s tree canopy to 30 percent – an addition of 300,000 trees -- by 2015 to help reduce air pollution and manage storm water runoff. PHS and its partners are working to support that goal.

“The Fall For Your Park and TreeVitalize programs help raise awareness of the importance of tree planting and tree care in all of our neighborhoods,” said Jane Pepper. “These efforts on Nov. 21 and 22 also put into practice what we preach. Everyone can make a contribution to preserving our green landscapes and the environmental health of our city.”

Residents can find a Tree Tenders group in their area on the PHS website, www.PHSonline.org.

Gardening equipment for the Fall For Your Park effort was donated by Mantis.

 Philadelphia Green is the nation’s leading program on urban revitalization and has served as a model for cities throughout the U.S. Through its efforts in parks, gardens, tree plantings, urban agriculture, public landscapes, and educational programs, Philadelphia Green brings people and partners together to transform communities.

 

For more information Contact:
Alan Jaffe at 215-988-8833
Laura Hoover at 215-988-8836