Faculty, staff plant trees around Philadelphia

This spring, Penn faculty and staff members will help 300 trees find new homes in Philadelphia.

On Thursday, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Penn President Amy Gutmann led Penn’s first tree giveaway, “Creating Canopy,” organized in conjunction with the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department and University City Green.

More than 100 of the 300 trees purchased by the Penn Green Campus Partnership were given to faculty and staff who live in Philadelphia, Facilities and Real Estate Services spokeswoman Jen Rizzi said.

The trees will help advance Nutter’s goal to plant 300,000 new trees in the city by 2015, outlined in Greenworks Philadelphia — a plan to make Philadelphia the greenest city in America.

Penn also hopes to cultivate a greener city and a new generation of environmentally engaged citizens.

“When is there some other time that we’re going to clean our air? When is there some other time that we’re going to beautify our neighborhoods?” Mayor Nutter asked at the kickoff. Despite the current economic crisis, he believes “that time is now.”

Trees benefit the city by increasing property values, helping manage storm water and sequestering carbon, according to the Greenworks Philadelphia plan.

“A new generation of trees in our city, with a new generation of young people and those who are young at heart” will recreate the city, Nutter said. “Children will come to know these small trees and as they grow, they’ll remember … wonderful memories.”

“Trees speak to us,” Gutmann added, recalling some of her own memories: “Swinging on birches, the Swiss Family Robinson creating a treehouse, and my favorite, the small treasures left by Boo Radley in a knothole in a tree.”

Vice President of Facilities and Real Estate Services Anne Papageorge remembers one reason she became a landscape architect — a tree she received in 1972 at a tree giveaway on the first Earth Day.

Experiences like this “leave a mark,” she said. “I’m hoping the faculty and staff will take the tree to their home and teach their families” about caring for the environment.

Netter Center for Community Partnerships Administrative Assistant Linda Satchell said memories of her neighborhood led her to sign up to receive a free tree.

“My neighborhood, when I moved in, had trees all along the street, she said. “Over the years, they disappeared.”

Satchell hopes to begin to make her neighborhood beautiful once more by planting the tree she received today, she added.

Penn already plants many trees on campus, Papageorge said. By giving trees to staff and faculty members, Penn was able to contribute to the larger community.

Giving trees is also a way to “engage citizens in restoring the urban forest,” Parks and Recreation Commissioner Mike DeBerardinis said.

Pre-registered faculty and staff will also be able to pick up trees on Saturday. Any remaining trees will be planted on campus or in West Philadelphia.

Instructions for care were included with the tree, Rizzi said. The Parks Department will follow up with all who received a tree.

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