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City of Kalamazoo plants hundreds of new trees, plans for more next year

Jalen Williams
/
WMUK

Kalamazoo residents may have noticed more young trees in their parks and curb lawns this year. The city is taking steps to add to its tree cover, with 500 new plantings scheduled for 2022.

Anthony Ladd is with the Public Works Division. He says for years the city has wanted to plant more trees in its parks and curb lawns.

“The genesis of this project was something the city committed to years ago as a designated Tree City, USA,” Ladd said. Tree City is a program of the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation.

It helps that Kalamazoo can now use funds from its public-private partnership the Foundation for Excellence to help cover the cost of the plantings.

Ladd said the city will get about 300 trees planted this year. He added that Kalamazoo is selecting species with climate change in mind.

“What we're doing is still sticking to native species to the Midwest generally, but ones that are more adaptive to a warmer climate,” he said.

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