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ReGreen Tulsa

Join residents across Tulsa as we "ReGreen Tulsa".
20,000 Trees by 2010!

December 2007's devastating ice storm destroyed or heavily damaged Tulsa's beautiful tree canopy. The ReGreen Tulsa program is a joint effort of Mayor Kathy Taylor, Tulsa's Tree Advisory Committee and the local non-profit organization Up With Trees, to reestablish our tree canopy.

ReGreen Tulsa Goal:

Plant 20,000 trees by December 2010 on both private property and public sites. Program efforts will focus on the two areas most devastated by the storm, neighborhoods and parks, and will include educational efforts encompassing how to plant trees so that they thrive in Tulsa soils and how to care for them so that they can survive Tulsa's challenging climate.

Fall 2009 Plantings Are Now Being Scheduled with Up With Trees. Call 610-8733 for more information.

The following plantings have been scheduled with the City of Tulsa Parks Dept. To volunteer, contact Maureen Turner at (918) 284-9017.

NeighborWoods

Modeled after a similar highly successful program in Austin, the NeighborWoods program identifies neighborhoods with the greatest need for tree replacement, as well as the need for economic assistance with associated costs. The program will include educational events in the selected neighborhoods. Call Up With Trees for more information, (918) 610-8733.

Tulsa Parks

Tulsa's many city parks were full of large, mature trees that offered bountiful shade for picnicking, sports like Frisbee golf, walking or lounging. Those parks are perhaps the areas with the greatest visible devastation from the Ice Storm of December 2007. In the Regreen Tulsa program, Tulsa Urban Foresters and horticulturists with the Tulsa Public Works Department, designate the areas of greatest need and coordinate with program planting partners and community volunteers to replace trees lost in the storm.

Additional ReGreen efforts

Several other programs which allow individuals to participate in ReGreen efforts no matter where they live. Here's a brief list of additional programs included in ReGreen Tulsa:

• Mayor's Recognition Program. Register any trees you plant in your yard and receive a Regreen Tulsa E-Certificate of Recognition.

• Faith-based NonProfit Program. Tulsa's many faith-based organizations and other non-profit groups will be encouraged to plant 1,000 trees in Tulsa over the three years of the ReGreen Tulsa program. Contact Up With Trees for more information, 610-8733.

• ReGreen Builders Planting Program. Builders can work to meet voluntary benchmarks established by the Mayor's office and the Home Builders Association of Greater Tulsa (HBA) for planting trees in new housing and commercial developments.

• Seedling Planting Program. Youth volunteers and children's groups can participate in planting seedlings in public spaces each year, as part of a tree education program.

ReGreen Donors

Thank you to all of those individuals, companies and organizations which stepped up to the plate and helped to get our ReGreen efforts started.

ReGreen Tulsa would also like to thank the following funders for their generous support: George Kaiser Family Foundation, SemGroup, Samson, Joe and Kathy Craft III, William K. Warren Foundation, the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, Mary K. Chapman Foundation, Lobeck-Taylor Foundation, Nadel & Gussman, L.L.C., John Zink Foundation, BOK Foundation, Nancy E. and Peter C. Meinig, The Williams Companies, and Stephen E. and Shelley S. Jackson Family Foundation.

News Archive

Home Depot Donates Money and Manpower to ReGreen Tulsa Effort - December 13, 2008

Home Depot has stepped up to provide both substantial funds - $100,000 from its national foundation - and manpower - volunteers from its local stores - to help Tulsa in its effort to plant 20,000 trees by 2010.

"This is the kind of corporate commitment that really makes a difference in a community," said Mayor Kathy Taylor. "Obviously, we are tremendously grateful for the generous contribution, but it is just as impressive that they are backing that up with volunteers who will actually be out in the field, working to help us plant trees across the city on an ongoing basis."

The Home Depot Foundation was to formally present a $100,000 donation to Mayor Taylor and  Up With Trees to support the ReGreen Tulsa reforestation effort Saturday, Dec. 13, at 9 am at Florence Park, 21st Street and Florence Avenue. The presentation will be made by Carmelo Scalone, Home Depot District Manager for Tulsa, Kansas, and Missouri. Following the brief ceremony, Mayor Taylor and Up With Trees will join a corps of volunteers from local Home Depot stores and neighborhood residents to plant some 35 trees in the Florence Park South neighborhood as part of a ReGreen Tulsa NeighborWoods project.

The planting comes almost exactly one year after a devastating ice storm destroyed tens of thousands of Tulsa's trees. Out of that disaster the city and Up With Trees created ReGreen Tulsa, an ambitious program to replant what was lost in the storm and more, with a goal of planting 20,000 trees by 2010.

Up With Trees Executive Director Anna America noted that with the Florence Park planting, Up With Trees will have planted more than  2,000 trees since the ice storm. "A year ago, most of us were still without power, and we were still in grief as we looked around and saw how much damage had been done to our trees," she said. "It really says a lot about Tulsans and the leadership from Mayor Taylor  that we set immediately to cleaning up the mess and doing what we could to fix it, and in the past 12 months we have planted more trees than have ever been planted in a year in Tulsa before."

In addition to the 2,000 trees it has put in the ground, Up With Trees has distributed some 1,500 free trees to local non-profit agencies and faith-based groups for plantings on their facilities, and hundreds of Tulsans have planted trees and registered them on the regreentulsa.com website. "All together, we have seen more than 4,000 ReGreen Tulsa trees planted this year. Considering that we had started the year with months of cleaning up literally tons of tree debris, that's really a pretty amazing number, and something we should be very proud of," America said.

Home Depot is a national sponsor of NeighborWoods. In Tulsa, the program is administered by Up With Trees in collaboration with the City, which works with neighborhood associations to plant trees in homeowners' yards. Other elements of ReGreen Tulsa include plantings in parks, on school grounds, along city streets and in other public places, as well as educational programs aimed at teaching Tulsans how to plant and maintain their own trees.

"The Home Depot Foundation is proud to be a funding partner of ReGreen Tulsa," said Kelly Caffarelli, executive director of The Home Depot Foundation. "Our Foundation supports organizations that build affordable, healthy homes for working families and plant and preserve community trees. By forming a partnership with the City of Tulsa and Up With Trees, we are furthering our shared mission of improving the health of local communities."

Local Home Depot workers also plan to help with future NeighborWoods plantings and also to take the lead in a new Up With Trees program to launch in 2009 to plant trees at the homes of elderly homeowners who aren't able to plant themselves.

"This will be a great partnership and we are really looking forward to working with them," America said.

Mayor Taylor encouraged Tulsans to support the ReGreen Tulsa effort by volunteering to help with plantings or by making donations. This time of year, she noted, citizens can help make the city greener and make holiday gift-giving easier by taking part of the ReGreen Holiday Tree program - for each $25 tax-deductible donation, a 3-gallon tree will be planted in a Tulsa park and a gift-card will be sent to a recipient notifying them of the donation. For information about that program or other ReGreen Tulsa programs, contact Up With Trees at 610-8733 or trees@upwithtrees.org.

Face Lift Underway in Tulsa Parks - March 14, 2008

The ice storm of December 2007 will be remembered as an event that changed the face of Tulsa. But because of the help of arborists and forestry specialists from across the southern United States, it may also be remembered as an event that, in the end, made our urban forests healthier and our parks safer.

"Tulsa suffered tremendous losses," said Mark Bays, Urban Forestry Coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry - Forestry Services. Bays led the team of specialists who evaluated Tulsa Parks following the storm. The devastation appeared horrific, but as the study continued, Bays said that upon closer look, things weren't quite so bad, based on the total inventory of the trees and comparisons with the Parks Department's urban forest records.

"The Tulsa Parks Department has maintained an inventory of trees for some time," said Maureen Turner, horticulturist with the Tulsa Parks Department.  "Each tree has been identified by exact GPS location, tree species, condition and age. Thanks to our existing inventory, FEMA's review of the damage to trees in Tulsa Parks was faster and easier."

"After a careful review of the entire tree inventory, tracking back to records from before the storm, our team could see the true numbers." Bays said. "The storm exposed some critical problems with older trees that needed to be addressed.  Once the cleanup is done, hazards are removed, and remaining trees are rehabilitated and pruned, I am confident that the trees in Tulsa Parks will be much healthier over all."

Bays added that the storm has created an opportunity for Tulsa. "Now the City can actually plan what the future tree cover of the city will look like," he said.

Selected tree species for city-wide plantings in parks and right-of-ways include only trees which can withstand the range of temperatures, changes in humidity and windy climate of eastern Oklahoma. This list of suggested tree species is available on the City's website at www.cityoftulsa.org/ReGreen/TreeList.asp.

More good news: thanks to the excellent records kept by the Tulsa Parks Department, and the assessment of Bays and his team of professionals, Tulsa has been selected as one of the first recipients in a new FEMA Pilot program. The program provides "up front" payment to cover the expenses of trimming and removal of trees damaged during a disaster like the December 2007 ice storm.

"We are grateful that FEMA has selected our city for this pilot program," said Mayor Kathy Taylor.  "We've been told that Tulsa is the perfect candidate to lead the way. Hopefully other cities will learn from Tulsa's experience, and maintain good records about the age, size and condition of trees in public spaces."

Tulsa expects to receive about slightly under $1 million from FEMA and the State of Oklahoma to cover expenses of tree trimming and removal in Tulsa's Parks. The work in Tulsa's 125 parks will take place over the next six months.