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Feb 25, 2008 6:48 pm US/Central
City Of Arlington Offering Trees For Free!
ARLINGTON (CBS 11 News) ―
A quick look around the Arlington Downs neighborhood reveals a key ingredient to its success.
Peggy Quinn is on the landscape committee and she says, "When people move here, and we ask, 'Why did you move here?' they say the trees." That was reason enough for Quinn and other homeowners to jump at the chance to have more trees for free.
Last fall they and other local residents took advantage of a pilot program called "Let's Enhance Arlington's Forest", better known as L.E.A.F.
This year the city is expanding the program and wants residents to take advantage. "If you take the time to take care of it, there's not a person that cannot grow a tree," said Paul Brandon, Lead Landscape Technician for the City of Arlington Parks and Recreation Department.
The program is simple. Get at least ten willing homeowners to do the digging and watering and the city provides the trees. There are more than a dozen varieties to choose from. The program provides two five-gallon trees per homeowner. Businesses can get up to ten thirty-gallon trees.
Mel Hansen helped with a project at Arlington Downs. "The city helped us decide which trees to plant where because we didn't know for sure."
Quinn says even after you've gotten the trees, you're not alone. "The city was very helpful," she says. "He gave us ideas about to compost them [the trees], how big the holes needed to be and said if we have questions we could call them and they'd come out and help."
Brandon says it's a 'win-win' deal with the environment in mind. "These trees are going to be around 300 years from now and it's nice to know that we're a part of something that's going to last that long."
Click here for more information about the Arlington L.E.A.F program.
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