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East Little Havana residents, families and friends came out to dig in as the Trust for Public Land hosted its first Community Tree Planting Celebration Saturday, May 21, 2005 at 10:30 a.m. The trees, provided by the Trust for PublicLand, a nonprofit land conservation organization, were placed along NW 3 RD Street from 12 th Avenue to South River Drive . Joining in this exciting event were City of Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Commission Chair Joe Sanchez.
Father Alberto Cutie of Radio Paz started the ceremony by blessing the trees. Volunteers planted trees, which have signage identifying the tree species, the benefits of trees, as well as excerpts from neighborhood children’s poems inspired by the need to reforest East Little Havana. This event was the first pilot implementation project as a result of the Trust for Public Land’s East Little Havana “Greenprint - a comprehensive green infrastructure plan with the ultimate goal of increasing the number of parks to address open space needs and minimize health problems such as childhood obesity, rebuilding the urban tree canopy in the neighborhood, and connecting East Little Havana to the Miami River Greenway.
East Little Havana currently has the least amount of parks and green space in the Miami area and less than 5% tree canopy coverage. (The average American City has 30 – 40% coverage.) The Trust for Public Land, in partnership with Citizens for a Better South Florida and the City of Miami, provided over 100 trees which were planted on Saturday, May 21st dramatically increasing the canopy coverage in the six-block area of NW 3 rd Street . More trees will come as the East Little Havana Greenprint project unfolds.
Entertainment, live radio broadcasts, food and dancing completed the day.
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