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Help Grow 500 Trees in Greenpoint Beginning This Fall

By Serena Dai | September 16, 2015 1:39pm
 Locals are invited to help plant 500 trees throughout Greenpoint.
Locals are invited to help plant 500 trees throughout Greenpoint.
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GREENPOINT — An effort to plant 500 new trees throughout the neighborhood will kick off this month — and locals can help care for the seedlings.

The project, Greening Greenpoint, will begin this fall as part of a nearly $2 million grant from the Exxon Mobile oil spill settlement fund.

The city is seeking volunteers to help with the project, starting with a meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at the McCarren Play Center located at 776 Lorimer St.

The three-year project includes planting new trees and maintaining existing trees on the street and in parks, a collaboration between City Parks Foundation, New York Tree Trust and the Parks Department.

It also aims to increase green space by removing some 25,000 square feet of concrete around 675 existing trees, installing tree guards and planting more bulbs in the neighborhood.

Locals interested in sustainability will also learn lessons in how to care for the trees in the future, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation.

Tree planting will start between October and December, and continue between March and May of next year, the Parks Department added.

It will ultimately bring about 1 additional acre of green space to Greenpoint.

Greening Greenpoint is one of several environmental projects included in the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund, a $19.5 million reserve that resulted from a settlement with Exxon Mobile after a massive oil spill was discovered in 1978.

Other winning bids for the cash included an anti-litter campaign, a waterfront restoration project and a stormwater-capturing project.

The fund will be announcing more environmental projects for locals to vote on later this fall.