ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (WXYZ) — Less than 24 hours after the city of Rochester Hills went live offering 200 free trees to residents for fall, it sold out.
“We were lucky to apply early, so we were able to get the trees,” said Mary Schultz, who lives in the area.
The city of Rochester Hills has partnered with Arbor Day Foundation for the Community Canopy Program and has done so since 2020. It offers 200 trees twice a year during fall and winter to homeowners who apply.
The trees are then planted for residents.
“That’s pretty awesome to see as a natural resources manager to see residents in our community support a program like that, planting trees on their property and being a part of growing our community's canopy,” Matt Einheuser, Rochester Hills' natural resource manager, said.
Since 2020, Einheuser says they’ve planted more than 1,800 trees provided by Arbor Tree Foundation.
“Calculated out, they provide a nice little dashboard of what that provides. So over the next 20 years, that provides over $300,000 in community benefits, including over 8.9 million gallons of storm water over the next 20 years and filtering it,” Einheuser said.
Schultz is a part of a group of passionate tree and nature lovers who waited for the fall application to open.
“I’m very, very happy my city of Rochester Hills in conjunction with the Arbor Day Foundation provides trees to residents in the area. We were looking to replace trees that had been damaged by the storm or just by pests and needed some trees, and we found the Community Canopy Program and applied and we’re so excited for our little community to be receiving some trees come October,” Schultz said.
They are the only community to participate in Michigan, but two utility companies are participating: the Holland Board of Public Works and Lowell Light & Power.
This is in addition to their city-funded Street Tree program, which has planted 20,000 trees in the public right-of-way spaces for the past decade.
“Trees provide so many different benefits. That’s why as a city, we’re always looking to try to maintain a healthy canopy,” Einheuser said.
With trees down by storms and an increase in flooding, Einheuser says it’s been a way for them to introduce green infrastructure, which can help long term.
“There's a lot of different green infrastructure techniques out there that help communities mitigate against flooding and one of those is planting vegetation and establishing trees and different vegetation, natural vegetation that uptakes a lot of water,” Einheuser said. “Oakland County, in general, and a lot of communities around here, you’re starting to see that push around green infrastructure, and I think a lot of communities have started to realize the need for it.”
Recently, the city of Sterling Heights was one of the 36 recipients to get $500,000 to launch the Sterling Heights Urban Reforestation Initiative from the American Forests organization.
The program will tackle the loss of 12,000 mature trees in the city caused by an invasive species.
SHURI aims to plant more than 1,500 trees in underserved communities to bridge the gap of almost 60% of residential properties in the city that lack trees.
The city of Royal Oak also offers free tree planting in the fall in the easement between the sidewalk and the street.
