Providence Awarded $20,000 TD Green Streets Grant for Huntington Avenue Urban Forestry Initiative
Providence, RI —TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®, and the Arbor Day Foundation
announced that the City of Providence Department of Parks and Recreation will receive a $20,000 grant from TD
Green Streets to support innovative urban greening and tree-planting projects along Huntington Avenue.
The grant is being managed by the Forestry Division in partnership with the Providence Neighborhood Planting
Program. The grant funds will be used to bring together a coalition of community partners and stakeholders to
collaboratively plan, prepare, plant and steward a mix of shade trees and shrubs along Huntington Avenue.
The project will kick-off on Arbor Day, Friday, April 27th at 11:00am, with a tree planting and Arbor Day Celebration
at the eastern end of Huntington Avenue near its intersection with Cranston St. Volunteers from TD Bank and
neighborhood residents will join Amos House’s A Hand Up crew, Groundwork RI’s GroundCorp team,
representatives from the Gilbert Stuart Middle School Garden Club, students from Johnson & Wales, and members of
the Elmwood Neighborhood Association & Friends of Bucklin Park to plant sixteen shade trees in the currently paved
center median.
Over the summer these community partners will collaborate through a series of meetings and workshops to discuss and
prepare for the additional Huntington planting sites, design and implement the tree stewardship plan, participate in
peer-to-peer tree-maintenance training, and promote and facilitate discussion-workshops with the nearby stakeholders
and residents to share and discuss ongoing visions for what a greener, more usable Huntington Ave might look like. A
second community-planting event will take place in October 2018, to install the remaining trees and native shrubs
along the avenue.
Said City Forester Doug Still: “Planting along Huntington Avenue supports our efforts to increase tree canopy in the
surrounding neighborhoods. It also builds off of the collaborative work the City has done with TD’s support in the
past, to plant on and near the site of the former Gorham Silver Manufacturing Company in Providence’s Reservoir
Triangle neighborhood.”
“We’re delighted that this TD Green Streets funding is allowing us to bring some needed TLC to this low tree
canopied corridor,” said Cassie Tharinger, Director of the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program. “Though it’s
not a long stretch of road, Huntington Ave links and borders so many neighborhoods on the southwest side of the city,
which makes it an ideal site around which to bring together this broad group of stakeholders—pooling skills and
efforts to increase the number of trees here, where they’re so needed! It’s also an exciting opportunity to start a
community conversation about what we would like to see Huntington Ave become, and how we can work together to
get there.”
“TD Bank is committed to enhancing urban tree canopies and green space as part of our vision to support the transition
to a low-carbon economy and nurture sustainability in the communities we serve,” said Joseph Doolan, TD Bank’s
Head of Environmental Affairs. “Through our longstanding partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation, we are
supporting innovative community programs in cities including Providence that do more than beautify underserved
urban neighborhoods – trees improve air quality, capture carbon emissions, and enhance the quality of life.”
TD Bank provides the funding for the grants, which are awarded annually for tree planting, maintenance costs and
educational activities, and the Arbor Day Foundation administers the program. TD Green Streets is a component of TD
Forests, a North American initiative aimed at growing urban forests, protecting critical forest habitats and encouraging
responsible use of forest products.
To be eligible for a grant, qualified municipalities must be current Arbor Day Foundation Tree City USA®-designated
communities within TD Bank’s U.S. footprint, with the submitted project occurring in a low-to-moderate income area
of the local community. Tree City USA is the nation’s premier urban and community forestry program, providing a
foundation for effective, well-organized community tree care.
Providence was one of 10 U.S. cities selected for grants this year of up to $20,000 from TD Green Streets, which
supports projects in low- moderate-income areas. Other grant recipients this year are:
• Myrtle Beach, SC • New York, NY • Oakland Park, FL
• Clinton, SC • Plainfield, NJ • Delray Beach, FL
• Clifton,NJ • Philadelphia,PA • Boston,MA
For more information, visit arborday.org/programs/tdgreenstreets/
About the Arbor Day Foundation: The Arbor Day Foundation is a million-member nonprofit conservation and
education organization with a mission to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. More information on the
Foundation and its programs can be found at arborday.org.
About TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank®
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