Tornado Anniversary

On May 22, a tree was planted in the yard of Jan Carstens to honor her husband, Rob MacIntyre, who died in the tornado that devastated sections of North Minneapolis one year ago. Rob was a great friend to the environment and to the youth crews from Tree Trust who worked on projects in his neighborhood over the years. Following his death and at the request of Jan, a fund was set up at Tree Trust in Rob's name which will restore trees to the North Minneapolis community. Consider making a donation to the Rob MacIntyre Fund to help our neighbors while they continue the recovery process. 

A lot of great organizations, government agencies, and individuals have been on the ground providing assistance, but there is much more to be done. Estimated costs for recovery efforts have reached over $80 million. Tree Trust will continue to work with many partners to aid in restoring trees to the community during the coming months and years. Partners to date include the City of Minneapolis, State Farm, Wells Fargo, Xcel Energy, Minnesota Helps - North Minneapolis Recovery Fund, Bachmans, Knecht Nurseries and Landscaping and Taylor Truck Line.

Tree Trust has always had a focus on serving the neighborhoods of North Minneapolis and the recovery effort has created an even greater focus on the area. Our YouthBuild program has worked to rehab and rebuild homes and apartment buildings in tornado damaged neighborhoods. Our Community Forestry Department has distributed over 600 trees so far to residents of North Minneapolis who had their tree canopy devastated by the tornado and we will roll out additional tree restoration programs later this year. Many of the youth who participate in Tree Trust programs are residents of North Minneapolis and are proud to be able to help the areas where they live.

Tree Trust is grateful for the support of the metro community toward our work in North Minneapolis and we'll continue doing all we can in the coming months and years. Visit Tree Trust's website to make a donation or for more information.

For an update on recovery efforts by the City of Minneapolis, visit the Minneapolis Recovers: North Side Tornado page of the City of Minneapolis website.

Tree Trust partners with Groupon Grassroots

Tree Trust is partnering with Groupon Grassroots to raise money to plant trees through our Green Futures program! What is Groupon Grassroots? An offshoot of the popular Groupon deal-of-the-day website, the Grassroots initiative is "a new way to discover local causes, rally together, and lend a helping hand." It provides an opportunity for nonprofits to raise awareness for their cause, reach out to new donors, and raise money to support their mission.

For Tree Trust, this partnership will help spread the word of our Green Futures initiative and help us get more trees in the ground in our community!

If you are already a Groupon subscriber in the Twin Cities metro area, you will receive email notification of our campaign. Tree Trust must have 65 people contribute $10 for us to benefit at all. 

Since this benefits our Green Futures campaign every donation will be matched dollar for dollar by our anonymous donor, doubling your impact!  And if that isn't enough, once we have raised enough to have a community planting event, you can plant trees with us as a volunteer.

Consider contributing to Tree Trust via Groupon. New donors will be more likely to give once they see that others are excited about a cause. Your contribution of just $10 will help us plant trees, attract new donors, and raise awareness of our efforts!

Volunteer with Tree Trust

TREE TRUST VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES beginning in May.

Please see the information below and click on the link associated with each event. All of these events will take place rain or shine. If you wish to be notified of future events, we recommend you subscribe to TreeNews, our paperless newsletter. You can sign-up on the left side of the front page of our website at www.treetrust.org. 

UPCOMING VOLUNTEER EVENTS 

What:  REFOREST ST. LOUIS PARK COMMUNITY PLANTING

When:  May 12^th 9am-Noon

Where:  Oak Hill Park, 3201 Rhode Island Avenue South, St. Louis Park 55426

Sign up here:  http://tinyurl.com/ReForest-SLP-Planting

Nothing beats going home dirty on a lovely May morning after planting trees! We can’t promise the weather will be perfect, but we can promise you’ll have a great time planting trees in a pretty fantastic park. We’ll be planting about 45 trees around the park, plus mulching and watering. You’ll learn how to properly plant a tree and make some new friends. We’re looking for 40-50 people for this volunteer event. Our planting opportunities fill up fast, so if you’re interested sign up now! Planting events are family-friendly, so feel free to bring your kids. 

P.S. This planting is part of St. Louis Park’s Arbor Day event and runs concurrently with the Minnesota Tree Climbing championship. If you’ve never seen professional tree climbing against a clock, you should stick around after planting to check it out.

What: MINNEAPOLIS TREE DISTRIBUTION

When: May 12th multiple shifts - 6:45-11:00 am, 11:00 am-4:15 pm

May 13th multiple shifts - 7:45 am-12:00 pm, 12:00 pm-4:15 pm

May 14th 2:45-7:15 pm 

If you're interested in volunteering Saturday or Sunday but the timing of the shifts doesn't work quite right for your schedule, please contact Karen at karenz@treetrust.org.

Where:  City of Minneapolis Impound Lot-51 Colfax Avenue North, Minneapolis

Sign up here: http://tinyurl.com/MPLS-City-Trees 

 

Did you know that the City of Minneapolis has to remove thousands of trees each year lost to pests and disease? Did you know that the greatest opportunity to increase the tree canopy in Minneapolis is on private property? Help distribute 1,900 trees to Minneapolis residents as part of the annual three day tree distribution. We’ll need volunteers to not only help get trees into vehicles (great physical and mental exercise) but also to facilitate traffic control and check in. We’ll need around 20 people for each shift on Saturday and Sunday…got a group? Sign them all up!

We’ll also be starting Weeding Wednesdays along the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis this June…join us for a couple hours of midweek, mind clearing, weeding experiences. Locations to be determined. Keep an eye on our website for location details.

Thanks in advance. We hope to see you at a few of our events!