►
Description
Mayor Jacob Frey joined Council Vice President Linea Palmisano, Council Member Jamal Osman, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) Superintendent Al Bangoura and President Meg Forney, as well as community partners to highlight $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding dedicated to programming to expand the urban tree canopy as part of the Green Minneapolis Climate Resiliency Initiative.
This partnership is part of Green Minneapolis’ Twin Cities Climate Resiliency Initiative that is focused on expanding the urban tree canopy across the 7 county Twin Cities metro area. This will add to the existing 600,000 trees under MPRB management in Minneapolis. Green Minneapolis will lead collaboration with the MPRB to add and maintain trees that will mitigate the City’s major heat islands - North and South Green Zones and Downtown and equalize tree canopy coverage across environmentally disadvantaged parts of the city.
A
Good
morning
we
all
love
trees
and,
let's
show
our
love
even
more
for
trees
by
seeing
more
of
them
in
our
city.
That's
what
this
initiative
that
we
are
pushing
with
our
american
rescue
act
dollars
is
all
about.
You
know,
trees
have
so
many
uses,
there's
so
many
ways
to
enjoy
a
tree,
and
then
it
can
make
our
community
stronger
and
more
resilient.
A
You
know
you
can
sit
under
a
tree
and
read
a
book.
It
provides
the
necessary
shade.
It
pushes
back
on
some
of
the
heat
islands
that
we
have
in
our
city.
They
absorb
carbon
and
they
put
out
oxygen,
making
the
air
fresher
and
cleaner
in
our
neighborhoods.
You
can
even
climb
them,
and
so
trees
are
such
a
critical
component
of
anything
that
we
have
in
our
city
right
now,
and
there
are
portions
of
minneapolis
that
don't
have
enough
of
them.
A
There's
not
a
whole
lot
of
canopy
around
us,
and
because
of
that,
we
experience
a
bit
of
a
heat
island
in
some
of
the
areas
of
our
city
that
are
already
the
lowest
income
and
that
aren't
as
able
to
have
the
necessary
tree
canopy
around.
So
that
is
what
we're
trying
to
work
on
right
now,
with
a
1
million
dollar
investment
through
arpa
and
by
the
way,
with
this
new
money.
We
also
want
to
be
branching
out.
A
Pardon
the
puns
here,
we're
working
with
a
number
of
different
entities,
whether
that's
green
minneapolis
or
the
minneapolis
park
board.
We're
working
with
our
wonderful
staff
at
the
city,
led
by
the
the
director
of
sustainability
and
kim
havey,
and
the
goal
here
is
to
dramatically
expand
on
that
tree
canopy
over
the
next
19
or
so
years.
A
A
First,
we
lose
between
two
and
three
thousand
trees
from
that
minneapolis
park
board
number
on
an
annual
basis,
but
the
good
news
is
that
we
have
a
one-to-one
plan
so
for
every
tree
that
we
lose
the
park
board
is
doing
a
tremendous
job
of
planting
another
one,
but
in
order
to
grow
the
total
number
of
trees
in
our
city,
we
need
to
do
that.
Affirmative,
offense
work
where
we're
going
in
and
literally
planting
as
many
trees
as
we
possibly
can.
A
This
is
one
of
the
great
things
that
we
can
do
for
for
our
environment
and
when
you
think
about
environmentalism
and
sustainability
and
resiliency,
you
often
think
about
doing
less.
In
other
words,
you
think
about
producing
less
of
a
carbon
footprint
having
less
waste
driving
your
car
or
gas-powered
automobile
around
less
having
a
lower
consumption
of
oil
or
coal.
A
A
Many
of
them
are
about
to
speak
right
after
me
here,
but
first
I
would
like
to
invite
up
someone
that
has
been
pushing
this
particular
initiative,
since
I
can
remember
we're
talking
about
going
back
years
here
and
that
is
our
council
of
vice
president
lynette
palmisano
she's
been
working
with
david
wilson
and
green
minneapolis,
and
the
tremendous
team
over
there
to
really
get
this
right,
and
first
I'd
like
to
welcome
up
our
council.
Vice
president
lenny
palmisano.
B
Thank
you,
mayor
frye,
you
know.
At
the
beginning
of
last
year
the
city
stepped
in
to
be
involved
in
an
aspirational
and
worthy
idea.
The
minneapolis
climate
resiliency
campaign.
We
started
meeting
with
an
increasing
number
of
inter-jurisdictional
partners,
one
that
has
public
and
private
and
non-profit
and
even
educational
partners.
B
that
grew
and
it
there
became
the
need
for
us
to
do
this
on
a
broader
scale,
not
just
on
city
owned
land,
and
I
still
believe
we'll
make
this
into
one
of
the
midwest's
largest.
First
carbon
offset
accredited
programs.
This
million
dollar
investment
will
help
in
many
ways.
It
will
help
tree
canopy
across
our
city,
which
is
decreasing
as
population
density
increases
driven
by
the
minneapolis
2040
plan.
B
The
urban
tree
canopy
must
expand
to
offset
the
increases
in
air
pollution
to
offset
our
heat
island
effects
and
ensure
that
minneapolis
neighborhoods
provide
a
healthy
environment
for
all
residents.
Climate
change,
invasive
species
and
population
growth
will
continue
to
negatively
impact
tree
canopy
coverage.
Our
goals
of
this
working
group
was
to
increase
tree
canopy
coverage
to
40
percent
by
2040.,
we're
working
to
mitigate
the
city's
major
heat
islands,
our
north
and
south
minneapolis
green
zone
sections
and
also
downtown,
and
make
sure
that
we
are
prioritizing
disadvantaged
parts
of
our
city.
B
The
green
zone
initiative
is
a
resident
and
city
collaboration
to
support
community
health
and
economic
development
and
the
environment.
We're
also
looking
with
this
project
to
reduce
the
amount
of
storm
water
flowing
through
storm
source.
So
I'm
very
pleased
to
see
the
mayor
propose
this
investment,
our
north
side.
Green
zones
include
hawthorne
mckinley
and
near
north
neighborhoods
and
western
portions
of
the
northeast
neighborhoods.
C
C
A
D
All
right
welcome
everybody.
My
name
is
al
bangor,
I'm
the
superintendent
for
the
minneapolis
park
and
recreation
board,
and
I
am
absolutely
pleased
to
be
here
today
in
this
role
supporting
the
green
minneapolis
climate
resiliency
initiative
through
our
forestry
department.
Nprb
manages
and
cares
for
over
600
000
trees
throughout
minneapolis.
That's
an
incredible
number.
D
It
allows
mprb
to
plant
a
total
of
18
000
trees
in
2023
and
2024,
with
a
focus
on
the
green
zones.
This
trip
was
the
number
of
number
we'd
be
planting
with
only
mprb
general
funds.
So
it's
an
incredible
number
very
excited
about
this.
In
addition,
we
welcome
the
opportunity
for
building
community
support
in
the
ongoing
planting
and
the
growth
of
our
trees
in
minneapolis.
D
D
So
not
surprisingly,
as
the
leader
of
the
major
urban
park
system,
I'm
eager
for
this
initiative
to
get
started.
Planting
more
trees
makes
a
difference
right
now,
especially
in
our
green
zones
and
our
green
zone.
Communities
and
that
difference
will
only
grow
and
spread
out
into
more
significant
changes
in
our
lives.
E
Thank
you,
mayor
frye
and
hello.
Everyone.
I'm
meg
forney,
president
of
the
minneapolis
park
board,
like
the
superintendent.
I
am
so
excited
about
the
minneapolis
park
board's
partnership
with
green
minneapolis
in
this
initiative
working
with
mother
nature
to
build
a
more
resilient
city.
This
is
one
of
many
sustainability
initiatives
that
the
park
board
is
undertaking.
So
I'd
like
to
share
some
of
our
work
in
this
area.
A
key
goal
is
reducing
the
park
board's
carbon
footprint,
our
first
carbon
accounting
report,
completed
in
2019,
established
an
organization-wide
baseline
for
greenhouse
gas
emissions.
E
We
suppress
suppressed,
surpassed
our
10
reduction
goal
in
just
four
years.
Now
we
are
setting
a
new,
ambitious
goal
for
the
next
four
years
to
reach
these
goals.
We
are
switching
all
of
our
recreation
centers
to
100,
renewable
electric
energy,
completed
energy
efficiency
audits
at
our
ice
centers,
our
operation,
centers
and
other
major
energy
consuming
buildings.
E
We've
improved
and
expanded
city-wide
collection
rates
for
organics
recycling.
Thanks
to
the
green
core
staff
position
funded
through
the
minnesota
pollution
control
agency,
we've
established
a
data
insights
team
so
that
carbon
reduction
and
other
sustainability
work
can
be
measured
and
amplified
across
the
organization.
E
We
added
an
electric
utility
vehicle
to
a
the
four
hybrid
vehicles
that
are
a
part
of
the
park
board's
fleet
and
we've
purchased,
13
battery
operated
equipment
items
and
we
have
five
additional
electric
vehicles
on
order.
Despite
cover
19
and
the
supply
chain
limitations
going
forward,
our
transition
to
using
more
clean
energy
is
guided
by
a
fleet
transition
study
for
study
for
adding
more
hybrid
and
electric
vehicles
and
buy
clean
energy
criteria
for
new
and
replacement
equipment
for
park
and
tree
maintenance.
E
Another
goal
now
in
progress
is
management
plans
to
guide
sustainable
and
equitable
service
levels
for
the
park
board's
natural
resources
such
as
lakes
and
wetlands,
natural
areas
in
our
urban
forests,
for
example.
The
urban
forest
management
plan
includes
a
pile
of
project
to
create
increased
efficiency
with
mobile
technology,
to
expand
work
trading,
tracking
and
data
collection.
E
E
These
urban
forestry
efforts
obviously
dovetail
with
our
tree
planting
partnership
with
green
minneapolis,
whether
it's
growing
the
tree
canopy,
sustaining
stainless
managing
land
or
reducing
carbon
footprint.
It's
critical
for
the
minneapolis
park
and
recreation
board
to
be
an
environmental
leader,
and
I'm
also
very
proud
to
say
that
I
and
the
other
park
commissioners
are
active,
engaged
and
utterly
committed
to
this
work.
Thank
you.
A
F
You
very
much
thank
you
good
afternoon,
or
I
guess
good
morning,
everyone.
My
name
is
kim
havey,
I'm
director
of
sustainability,
and
I
want
to
thank
the
mayor
and
council
members
and
minneapolis
green
and
the
mprb
for
this
awesome
opportunity
to
invest
in
our
green
zones
and
to
bring
more
trees
to
our
community
for
all
the
reasons
that
we
heard
from
the
other
folks.
F
But
I
want
to
actually
just
read
a
couple
of
poems
about
trees
to
you
today
and
I'm
gonna
get
started
with
a
poem
by
david
rosenthal
named
trees
need
not
walk
the
earth.
Trees
need
not
walk
the
earth
for
beauty
or
for
bread.
Beauty
will
come
to
them
where
they
stand
here.
Among
the
children
of
the
sap
is
no
pride
of
ancestry.
F
F
F
A
G
Good
morning,
I'm
david
wilson,
the
board
chair
of
green
minneapolis,
and
thank
you
mayor
frye,
for
proposing
this
funding
to
plant
thousands
of
new
trees
across
our
city's
green
zones.
Green
minneapolis
is
committed
to
making
minneapolis
and,
in
fact
the
entire
twin
cities
metro
area,
more
climate
resilient
climate
change
is
threatening
residents
of
minneapolis.
Today,
with
hotter
temperatures,
destructive
storms,
extreme
precipitation
events,
increased
flooding
and
degrading
ecosystems,
and
our
communities
least
advantaged
communities
and
residents
are
impacted.
G
The
most
expanding
our
urban
tree
canopy
is
the
most
cost
effective
strategy
for
making
minneapolis
more
climate
resilient
trees,
sequester
carbon,
but
they
do
so
much
more.
They
capture
storm
water,
so
it
doesn't
flow
into
our
rivers
and
lakes.
They
filter
air
pollutants,
they
cool
our
heat
islands
in
our
cities
and
they
reduce
energy
costs,
both
heating
and
cooling
costs,
and
they
provide
wildlife
and
pollinator
habitat.
G
G
The
mayor's
proposed
one
million
dollars
is
a
spectacular
commitment
and
green
minneapolis
is
working
to
increase
funding
at
the
state
levels
and
at
the
federal
levels
as
well
for
urban
tree
canopy
as
well.
Green
minneapolis
is
launching
the
state
of
minnesota's
first
urban
tree
carbon
credits
program,
which
will
bring
new
funding
for
trees
from
the
private
sector.