Two years may not seem like much but, for the Detroit Tree Equity Partnership (DTEP) it was enough time to make a big difference in Detroit neighborhoods. DTEP, which launched in October 2022, marked 25,000 trees planted in targeted areas of the city on Monday, Oct. 28, a milestone in the partnership’s mission to add 75,000 trees to Detroit in five years.
“Just two years in, the project has had enormous impact already,” said Lionel Bradford, president and CEO of the Greening of Detroit. “You may have already noticed new trees along commercial corridors, vegetative buffers near freeways and major thoroughfares and an increase of trees in parks, on greenways, on vacant lots. We are truly transforming blight to beauty, as Mayor Duggan would say.”
This transformation has come with the work of hundreds of urban forestry experts and community volunteers who intentionally plant trees in areas of the city with a low tree canopy, meaning the people in those communities aren’t able to reap the benefits of trees. Adding 25,000 trees to parts of Detroit where they are needed most lowers surface temperatures on the hottest days of the year, reduces asthma rates and lessens water runoff, enhancing everyone’s quality of life.
The partnership is helmed by DTE Energy, Greening of Detroit and the City of Detroit bringing together the public, corporate and non-profit sectors to create a program that both plants trees and creates jobs in the Motor City. This structure has been a vital part of the success of the initiative.
“DTE has been with us since the beginning on this,” said Senator Debbie Stabenow at the event. “They’ve been out front, helping to build the coalition. This could not be done without the private sector.”
This partnership has exemplified DTE’s mission to improve lives with energy and the company’s history of caring for the environment and the communities where employees live and serve.
“These 25,000 trees are improving lives by capturing carbon, bettering our climate and cooling temperatures in the heat of the summer,” said Jerry Norcia, DTE chairman and CEO. “The trees we’ve planted today in this park will help cool the children who play here in the future with lots of shade.”
Monday’s planting was at Bailey Park in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood in Detroit, adding trees near a playground for everyone in the neighborhood to enjoy as they grow through the years.
“It’s amazing how far this city’s come,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “We’ve gone from cutting down 7,000 dead trees to planting 25,000 live trees, on our way to 75,000 live trees. This is what blight to beauty means.”
While the impact can be seen and felt at the city level, it’s the people who live in the communities where these trees are planted that experience the difference every day.
“It’s so much more than about planting a tree,” said Katrina Watkins, founder, Bagley Park Neighborhood Development Corporation. “It’s about climate change, it’s about tree equity because, in McDougall-Hunt, there is a lack of tree equity and park equity and that’s the type of equity we’re trying to create and inspire not just here but in other neighborhoods as well.”