Nonprofit Trees Forever this year piloted Neighborhood Tree Captains and tree voucher programs to empower residents to replant on their private properties. These programs were developed as part of the ReLeaf effort to reforest Cedar Rapids after the derecho.
Seedlings planted in in gravel beds June as a pilot project were recently planted in Bever Park, the first city park where the seedlings were planted. These seedlings offer an additional source of tree stock for parks as Cedar Rapids works to replant about 42,000 trees on public land after the derecho.
As the city of Cedar Rapids continues to recover from the devastation of the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds, the city will purchase a new stump grinder to aid in its efforts. Staff and contracted crews have removed about 7,300 stumps since March.
A $25,000 grant from CN Railway and America in Bloom will support the city’s “ambitious” partnership with Trees Forever to replant trees downed in the 2020 derecho.
NEWSTRACK | CATCHING UP ON AN EARLIER STORY: Cedar Rapids crews have ground thousands more tree stumps left in the derecho’s wake, while hundreds more trees have been planted this year as part of the 10-year ReLeaf reforestation plan.
The 10-year ReLeaf Cedar Rapids plan to replenish trees downed in the derecho was adopted three months ago. Here’s what’s happened since and how you can help sustain replanting efforts.
Although the 2020 derecho’s hurricane-force winds toppled thousands of trees around Cedar Rapids, the city of Cedar Rapids was named a Tree City USA for the 44th year.
Two area nonprofits, Monarch Research and Trees Forever, will continue to help Linn County residents replant trees downed in the 2020 derecho with tree distributions this spring.
Not a formal investigation, but the attorney general will look at why the price of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer has increased 315 percent since January 2021, and other types of fertilizer have increased between 171 percent and 290 percent, according to the federal agriculture department.
The urban reforestation plan, which aims to be a model for other communities, envisions trees as a tool to remedy social inequities, advance climate adaptation goals, enhance city design and strengthen community bonds through replanting and policy changes.
Marion will get $40,000 and Hiawatha $10,000 to help replant tree canopies lost in the 2020 derecho.
The ReLeaf team has crafted a plan with a $37 million price tag to replant equitably and with native species after the derecho. It details how Cedar Rapids can replant street and park trees, and contains guidance for private landowners.
ITC Midwest has given $200,000 to the ReLeaf Program, a partnership between nonprofit Trees Forever and the city of Cedar Rapids, to support tree replanting in Cedar Rapids after the 2020 derecho.
Animations of these replantings, as well as further public engagement opportunities, will be on the ReLeaf engagement website at
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