Tree-lined streets and tree-filled parks are not only attractive aspects of St. Louis Park for those who live, work and play here, they are also critical components of the city’s Climate Action Plan.
Trees help curb greenhouse gas emissions through carbon storage and sequestration; reduce heat island effect; purify the air; decrease energy use; reduce stormwater runoff; and provide many social and environmental benefits.
St. Louis Park has a robust public tree planting program that includes replacing and adding new trees every year to maintain the city’s tree canopy. The city’s efforts have not gone unnoticed – the Arbor Day Foundation has awarded Tree City USA status to St. Louis Park for 42 years running.
While the city is successfully sustaining its public trees, the future of the community forest on private property is more uncertain. Dutch elm disease and the emerald ash borer have taken a toll on trees. Replacing them is expensive and sometimes difficult for private property owners.
To make it more affordable for residents to add to the tree canopy, St. Louis Park has offered an annual tree sale since 2009. Offered in partnership with Tree Trust, this program has resulted in thousands of discounted trees sold to residents to plant on their property. However, even with a discount, purchasing, planting and caring for a tree can be an expensive and time-consuming task. The city wanted to expand its program so that every area of the city would have access to planting trees on their properties.
A first step came in 2021 when the St. Louis Park City Council established the Climate Investment Fund to support Climate Action Plan initiatives using equitable, data-driven program designs. The Climate Investment Fund allows the city to help property owners who potentially wouldn’t have the resources, tools or physical ability to plant a tree.
The second step was to determine what areas of the city most needed trees, and where tree planting programs would have the most impact. That’s when St. Louis Park became one of the first to use the Growing Shade mapping tool, developed by the Metropolitan Council.
Growing Shade uses satellite-supplied canopy data, demographic and socioeconomic data, and public health data to produce an overall score for each census block. The score combines existing tree canopy percentage; residents’ race, age and median income; lifetime cancer risks from air toxins; and temperature on a hot summer day. In St. Louis Park, the census blocks that scored above a threshold of concern were designated as environmental justice priority areas, with special attention paid to making tree planting programs affordable and accessible.
These new planting programs – Shade SLP and a full-service discount planting option through Tree Trust – will fund a portion of the cost for a property owner to plant up to three trees on their property. The percentage cost share for both programs is greater for properties within the environmental justice priority areas and for properties where an ash tree was recently removed due to emerald ash borer.
Residential property owners can use the full-service discount planting option offered by Tree Trust. Multifamily, commercial, industrial and nonprofit properties can use any licensed landscaping company to plant the trees and receive partial reimbursement through Shade SLP.
Visit https://treecanopyslp.myshopify.com for more information and to learn about the cost share available to you. With May designated as Arbor Month in St. Louis Park, there is no time better to plant a tree and explore the city’s valuable and beautiful community forest!
You can also learn more about the Growing Shade program through recent news articles:
