Pensacola plans to plant 63 new trees for $100K as 1st step in urban forest restoration

Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
·4 min read

One issue that has long-divided the Pensacola City Council is what to do with the city’s Tree Planting Trust fund, but the council appeared largely supportive of a new plan rolled out by the mayor’s office Monday.

City Arborist Kris Stultz gave the City Council a presentation Monday on the city’s preliminary plans for priorities for the Tree Planting Trust Fund.

Stultz’s presentation came after the city was awarded a $1 million federal grant to revitalize its “urban forest.” Stultz also announced that the city’s long-awaited tree inventory data is finally available for the public to view on the city’s website.

Stultz said the city wants to use an additional $100,000 to plant 63 new trees using the new data and a city-wide tree canopy study and will bring the formal request to the City Council next month.

The new inventory displays an interactive map displaying the position and type of every tree on the city's public right-of-way and city parks. Users can click on each individual tree to see a photo and notes about the tree.

Newly planted trees along West Gregory Street at the intersection of South G Street in Pensacola on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.
Newly planted trees along West Gregory Street at the intersection of South G Street in Pensacola on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

In January, the council approved a controversial plan to use $100,000 of the Tree Planting Trust fund to remove 33 trees dead or dying trees in the city right-of-way with $10,000 set aside to plant new trees.

Stultz said that those trees have been removed, and the city is in the process of planting 33 new trees in city parks, with 23 planted so far. The 10 remaining trees will be planted later this fall.

Stultz also reported that the 331 trees planted after Hurricane Sally under former Mayor Grover Robinson had a 90% survival rate.

“Now, a caveat to that is these trees are much smaller,” Stultz said. “The trees that we put in for the hurricane coverage are much smaller, much smaller than what we're planning to put in moving forward. We're planning putting a larger stock tree in.”

Stultz said with the completion of the city tree inventory data, the city now has the ability to be more strategic about where it plants trees.

“Well, once we got our canopy study in this past spring, instead of trying to debate where would be the best place per where the money came from, we decided to go for where the greatest need is,” Stultz said.

Factors like urban heat, overhead utilities, and even economic and social factors are being used to determine where to plant trees next.

Previously: Pensacola receives $1 million grant to reinvigorate its urban forest

Using those factors, Stultz said the proposal for the 63 trees will be:

  • Seventeen live oak trees in the rights-of-way on the north and east sides of Catalonia Square Park

  • Eleven live oak trees along the north side of East Fisher Street between Ninth and 11th avenues

  • Three live oak trees on the northwest corner of North E and West DeSoto streets

  • Five live oaks on the north side of West DeSoto Street between G and H streets

  • Fourteen sycamore trees and 13 live oak trees adjacent to St. John’s Cemetery on La Rua and Wright streets

If the $100,000 plan is approved, it will leave the city’s Tree Planting Trust Fund with a balance of about $258,000, but any future tree planting will largely depend on where the city can plant trees using the new $1 million federal grant.

The grant will require trees to be planted in areas where trees will reduce heat, as well as in socially vulnerable neighborhoods.

Newly planted trees along North Sixth Avenue at the intersection of East Maxwell Street in Pensacola on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.
Newly planted trees along North Sixth Avenue at the intersection of East Maxwell Street in Pensacola on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023.

Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said they are waiting to hear back from the federal government on the exact rules they have to follow to spend the grant funds.

“We don't know exactly when those dollars are going to come,” Reeves said. “We know they are, but we just don't know when, we don't know what the rulemaking is going to be.”

Reeves said that he’s also had discussions with the Florida Department of Transportation about planting trees along state-owned roads in the city, and those officials have been open to that idea.

“Think about Garden (Street), Pace (Boulevard), Ninth Avenue, many thoroughfares that do need canopy,” Reeves said. “And as it sits right now, we don't have the permission to do that. But Kris is going to now be able to come up with kind of a 'what if' conceptual map that here's the maximum plantings we would do on these roads and get those approved.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola looks to plant 63 new trees using new tree data