NEAT STREETS Miami Awards Street Tree Matching Grant to Village of Palmetto Bay
Palmetto Bay, Florida, August, 2018
- In an effort to expand Miami-Dade County’s tree canopy by leveraging local resources, Neat Streets Miami awarded the Village of Palmetto Bay a Street Tree Matching Grant for its Palmetto Bay Tree Canopy Project in the amount of $7,000. In its third year, Neat Streets Miami’s street tree program awarded 14 organizations matching grants to advance the Million Trees Miami initiative, a community-wide effort to reach a million trees by 2020.
“The Street Tree Matching Grant allows Miami-Dade County to leverage its funds strategically in order to plant trees along our streets through partnerships with our municipalities and community organizations,” said Miami-Dade County District 9 Commissioner Dennis C. Moss. “By incentivizing our partners to plant in underserved neighborhoods with low tree canopy, we are able to plant in neighborhoods that need these trees the most.”
“Trees are an essential part of our environment. Our area trees provide fresh air, natural beautification as well as serving traditional functions of providing a place for kids to climb and explore or simple shade for a day outdoors. We have a very long way to go to properly replace the tress lost to development. The trees obtained and planted through this grant (and consistent with our right tree in the right place policy) have been very well received by our residents as we continue in our commitment as a Tree City USA community, to replace native species, to restore and enhance our green canopy. Thank you.”
Said Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn
As part of this project, Palmetto Bay will plant 5 (mahogany), 14 (gumbo limbo), 2 (green buttonwood), 8 (pigeon plum), and 6 (live oak) trees to provide shade and beautify their community. The importance of maintaining our environment with trees for not only aesthetics but to cleanse our air and help make a positive impact on nature is a mission Palmetto Bay stands firmly behind.
Made possible through the County’s Tree Trust Fund, preference was given to areas with low tree canopy and low-to-moderate income populations, in an attempt to achieve at least twenty percent tree canopy coverage (Miami-Dade County’s average) in all neighborhoods. The 2018 grant funding totals $250,000, a 20 percent increase from last year.
