Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall has renewed her promise to plant 1,000 trees each year she’s in office.
The effort is focused on improving the environment in Salt Lake City’s west side, which typically experiences the worst air quality in the city, according to a news release on last year’s 1,000 Trees Initiative.
In 2020, the city planted 1,000 trees from April to November, starting with 25 trees at Rosewood Park on Arbor Day and ending with a tree at Riverside Park. This year’s first three trees were planted at the International Peace Gardens in Jordan Park, FOX 13 reports.
“Over the course of about the last 10 years, until I became the mayor, the city was just planting about as many trees as we lost each year,” Mendenhall said during a tree-planting ceremony Monday, FOX 13 reports. “We lose a thousand trees to disease, storms, snow, but it’s important that we plant more than the amount of trees we lose, so we’re actually growing in our urban forest.”
Thousands of trees were downed during a windstorm last year that saw hurricane-force gales wreak havoc throughout the city.
“Our hardest-hit areas for air quality and air pollution are on our city’s west side, and we know that trees not only help to beautify an area and increase property values and walkability, but they also help to clean our air and produce more oxygen,” Mendenhall said, according to FOX 13. “So there’s a million reasons to plant trees.”
Editor’s note • The Salt Lake Tribune and FOX 13 are content-sharing partners.
