Public Hearing: Funding our Trees

Do you care about our trees in Minneapolis? We need your help in contacting your elected Park Board Commissioners!

In the current Superintendent’s proposed budget, tree planting and stump grinding are proposed to be cut by more than $140,000, which will mean 563 fewer trees planted in 2019. On the bright side, the proposed budget funds a new Forestry outreach coordinator position dedicated to working with Minneapolis kids and communities to care for our trees. This will ensure that more of the trees we plant will be watered and pruned, which will make sure that more young trees survive.

The Minneapolis Tree Advisory Commission (MTAC) needs people to advocate for keeping the Outreach Coordinator funded, and for undoing the proposed cuts to tree planting.

Please come to the public hearing on November 14 at 5:00pm, in the Minnehaha Conference Room of the Park Board’s headquarters, 2117 West River Road.

If you can’t make it, please reach out to your Park Commissioners on social media or here: https://www.minneapolisparks.org/about_us/leadership_and_structure/commissioners/ District 2 commissioner (including the North Loop: Kale Severson kseverson@minneapolisparks.org

Other Commissioners:- jcowgill@minneapolisparks.org, bbourn@minneapolisparks.org, mforney@minneapolisparks.org, lfrench@minneapolisparks.org, ahassan@minneapolisparks.org, cmeyer@minneapolisparks.org, smusich@minneapolisparks.org, kseverson@minneapolisparks.org, lvetaw@minneapolisparks.org

A healthy tree canopy is vital to combating climate change, managing storm water, reducing heat island effect, and improving neighborhood health and livability. As we lose tens of thousands of mature trees to Emerald Ash Borer and Dutch Elm disease, we need to do everything we can to increase our canopy.

https://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/sustainability/trees/index.htm