116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Solid Waste Agency to give out 1,000 trees this month
Linn County residents can pick out trees online as part of derecho recovery effort
The Solid Waste Agency is planning to give away 1,000 trees in Linn County.
The agency is working with Trees Forever in an effort to assist with replenishing the tree canopy lost to the 2020 derecho.
Linn County residents can pick out up to two trees they want on the Trees Forever website, according to a news release. All trees must be reserved online before pickup day Oct. 17.
The agency has provided $25,000 for the replanting effort and has received a matching Environmental Management Systems grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, bringing the total to $50,000 used to purchase trees.
The DNR estimates that Cedar Rapids alone lost more than 669,000 mature trees in the derecho.
The agency also is continuing to see higher daily garbage tonnage than normal as Linn County residents still are recovering from the August 2020 storm.
“With more than 60 percent of Linn County’s tree canopy destroyed, the agency board of directors and staff want to help residents replant and reclaim what was lost and bring back the positive environmental impacts trees provide,” the release said.
Trees Forever’s work to distribute trees with the Solid Waste Agency is another part of its own effort to help replenish the tree canopy.
On Monday, the organization partnered with International Paper and the Arbor Day Foundation to distribute 325 trees at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The organization gave out bur oaks, bald cypresses, locusts, white oaks, ginkgos and tulip trees in the stadium’s parking lot.
Comments: (319) 398-8255; gage.miskimen@thegazette.com
A stand of trees shows heavy canopy loss Aug. 21, 2020, on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids. Besides doing heavy damage to the city's tree canopy, the Aug. 10, 2020, derecho left thousands without power and displaced many whose homes were damaged or destroyed. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Trees Forever CEO Kiley Miller (center) talks with Becky Dirks, who was volunteering with a group of International Paper employees, at a Trees Forever distribution event Monday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
Scott Schwaegler, a volunteer who was helping out with a group of International Paper employees, works at a Trees Forever distribution event Monday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. (Rebecca F. Miller/The Gazette)
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