Visit our new Lancaster Tree Tender website, where you can learn about upcoming events and volunteer opportunities and City of Lancaster residents can register for free trees.
Lancaster Tree Tenders was formed to solidify our efforts for a comprehensive program that engages the community and creates long term sustainable impact. Our purpose is
“To increase and enhance Lancaster’s urban forest by engaging and empowering neighborhoods to plant and care for trees”.
By engaging and training City residents we hope to capture storm water as part of the city’s effort to reduce pollution and runoff into rivers and Chesapeake Bay, increase biodiversity within the city, and beautify neighborhoods. But urban trees can have a much bigger impact than that. Studies have shown that urban trees can help save energy by reducing cooling costs, have health benefits, increase pedestrian traffic in shopping areas, and have been correlated to reduced crime. Furthermore engaging community members in working together on ongoing projects has been shown to further increase community pride and reduce crime, making our efforts doubly important.
A collaborative effort, Lancaster Tree Tenders is an initiative of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay with partners Lancaster City Alliance and the City of Lancaster. Tree Tenders is a state-wide educational training program developed by, and offered through Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry, and Penn State Extension. Learn more about the training program and how other municipalities can follow the Lancaster Tree Tender model.
Our first planting took place last fall in the NE of Lancaster City where neighbors and volunteers participated in a street tree training and planting of 28 trees on 5 City blocks. Efforts are underway for additional plantings in the SW and NE. These plantings are a wonderful demonstration of our efforts and the community engagement they create. Leading up to that date there will be a lot of fund raising, organization, and outreach that needs to be done and we will keep you apprised of our progress and events as they unfold.
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Expanding Lancaster’s Tree Canopy
The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is committed to planting trees throughout Lancaster City and county.
We continue to work with the City of Lancaster to develop a strategy to increase our urban tree canopy cover from 28% to 40% within forty years; this goal is part of the City’s Green Infrastructure Plan. Over the past three years we have assisted the City in planting over 350 trees in Lancaster City’s Southeast and Northeast quadrants.
The Tree Benefit Calculator allows anyone to make a simple estimation of the benefits individual street-side trees provide. This tool is based on i-Tree’s street tree assessment tool called STREETS. With inputs of location, species and tree size, users will get an understanding of the environmental and economic value trees provide on an annual basis.
Urban Canopy Crowdfunding Campaign
Lancaster Tree Tenders launched a crowdfunding campaign on the first day of spring and raised $15,000 in two months! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, shared, or volunteered to help us reach this goal! If you missed out on this campaign but still want to get involved, email lancastertreetenders@gmail.com.
To learn more about the City of Lancaster tree program Click here.
Are you a City resident interested in planting trees? Find out more about the City’s Street Tree Planting Program here.
