CSX employees, joined by representatives from TreeBaltimore, Parks & People Foundation and the Westport Community, spent Saturday morning planting large Redbud, Maple and Sycamore trees throughout Baltimore's Westport neighborhood.
The railroad-sponsored program focused on Annapolis, Maisel and Cedley streets in the 45-acre Westport neighborhood that is being redeveloped from an industrial area to a mixed-used community. An estimated 37 percent of the area`s families live below the poverty line, but area leaders hope the environmental restoration and community revitalization goals will make the neighborhood a national model for urban restoration.
The CSX event was part of the railroad`s "Trees for Tracks" program that promises to plant 21,000 trees, or one tree for each mile of CSX track, in partnership with local organizations over the next five years. Other partners include City Year, the national youth service initiative, and Alliance for Community Trees, a national organization dedicated to helping cities restore their forest canopy, a third of which has been destroyed in recent decades.
According to Tori Kaplan, Director of Corporate Citizenship for CSX, "Planting trees improves air quality, offsets carbon emissions, creates noise buffers, improves wildlife habitats and adds beauty to our communities. We appreciate the opportunity to bring Trees for Tracks to a Baltimore city neighborhood that has received national attention for reinventing itself in ways that improve the quality of life and benefit the environment."
During its twenty-five years of working in Baltimore City, Parks & People has found environmental restoration can be a critical early step in the revitalization of communities in need. "In communities with trees, people socialize more with their neighbors, have a stronger sense of community and pride in their neighborhood, and feel safer than people in communities without trees. We are excited to be part of this larger effort that CSX is undertaking, to bring trees back to our city," Says Guy Hager, senior director for the Parks & People Foundation.
Additional CSX "Trees for Tracks" planting days will take place over the next several months in Atlanta, Miami and other cities. For additional information or to sign up as a volunteer, please visit
http://www.keeponliving.org/green/trees-for-tracks/.
Source: Tori Kaplan, CSX
Writer: Walaika Haskins