Sandy Springs Extends NeighborWoods Program

SANDY SPRINGS, GA — It’s not too late to add a few trees to your home. Following a successful pilot year, Sandy Springs is extending its NeighborWoods Project with Trees Atlanta.

The Front Yard Tree program provides free front yard trees to Sandy Springs residents. Trees Atlanta planted 74 trees in Sandy Springs during the pilot year and will plant up to 200 each year of the agreement. There is no cost to the homeowner for the trees, but maintenance (primarily watering) will be the homeowner’s responsibility.

As part of the Next Ten Comprehensive Land Use Plan and in keeping with the City’s commitment to sustaining its tree canopy, during its Sept. 4, 2018 meeting, the Sandy Springs City Council approved the adoption of NeighborWoods, a program providing free trees for residents to plant on their private property. The program will be conducted in partnership with Trees Atlanta, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the metro Atlanta area’s urban forest through planting, conserving and educating.

Planting trees to protect and expand Atlanta’s tree canopy is a fundamental part of Trees Atlanta’s mission. To maximize community impact, Trees Atlanta concentrates its planting efforts in areas where they are needed most—around schools and in parks, neighborhoods, and business districts. To date, Trees Atlanta has planted more than 133,000 trees throughout the metro area.

Trees Atlanta plants trees through two major planting programs:

• NeighborWoods: Started in 2001, the NeighborWoods program brings together volunteers and neighborhood representatives with Trees Atlanta team members to plant trees throughout Atlanta. Trees Atlanta provides the trees, tools, and planting expertise to ensure the trees thrive, while volunteers contribute their energy and passion for making their community a better place. It is difficult to overstate the importance of a vibrant tree canopy featuring healthy native species of trees. Preserving and expanding the canopy of metro Atlanta has been the objective of Trees Atlanta since its founding, and the NeighborWoods program is an essential component of that mission.
• Urban Trees: The Urban Trees program focuses on planting large ball and burlap trees along major traffic corridors in our most urban environments, public rights-of-way, parks, and public green spaces. These trees make Atlanta’s roads and highways more beautiful, and research also shows that street trees help decrease the speed of traffic, reduce the noise and air pollution from cars and trucks, and encourage pedestrians to walk along roadways. In the past, Trees Atlanta has worked with a small group of trusted contractors to conduct this work. In 2016, we decided to bring this work in-house. You will see our staff planting large urban trees along the Atlanta BeltLine, along major roadways and in city centers.