Trees Atlanta Launches 10 Year 'One Million Trees Initiative'

ATLANTA, GA — The One Million Trees Initiative launched Thursday at the 2020 Atlanta Canopy Conference by Trees Atlanta. It’s an initiative that has garnered the support of 10 Metro Atlanta cities and 10 Atlanta-based nonprofits. Trees Atlanta Co-Executive Directors Greg Levine and Connie Veates said in a statement that this collaboration advances a shared sense of urgency in fighting against climate change and the "environmental stresses from urban growth."

Trees Atlanta will lead the One Million Trees Initiative, the first of its kind in the United States to connect diverse communities and approaches that protect and improve the urban forest in the region.

The one million trees will include trees planted in city land and public projects, preserved in forested areas, and installed by individuals on private property, including residential yards and businesses. The Initiative will be completed within ten years.

The initial nonprofit partners committed to the One Million Trees Initiative are: Atlanta Audubon Society, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Georgia Conservancy, Park Pride, The Conservation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, The Trust for Public Land, WABE, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, and Trees Atlanta.

On Friday, Georgia Arbor Day, partners and the community are invited to participate in a tree planting project. It will take place from 9-11:30 a.m. in the Fourth Ward neighborhood at Freedom Park near 724 E Ave NE Atlanta.

President of the Arbor Day Foundation, Dan Lambe, and city officials at the planting project will be present.

"The impacts of climate change are amplified in urban areas where rapidly growing populations and competing demands for land use intersect in neighborhoods of widely different conditions," Trees Atlanta said in an earlier statement.

According to the organization, the population for both the city and the entire metro region are predicted to more than double by 2050.