Greening Milwaukee is a non-profit organization dedicated to making Milwaukee greener by showing people how easy it is to plant trees and how planting trees can have many positive effects- both on people and the environment. And we’ll be happy to give you a tree – for free!
On the pages ahead, you’ll find that there are many good reasons to plant trees. We’re here to offer a wealth of information on how to choose the right one, helpful tips to guide you as you decide where and how to plant your tree, and useful information on how to care for trees.
Mission Statement: The mission of Greening Milwaukee is to actively promote greening activities that improve our urban environment by educating and training citizens to increase the city’s tree canopy.
Greening Milwaukee: A brief history
Greening Milwaukee is a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and preservation of trees. In the 1960s the city of Milwaukee lost over 200,000 trees to the Dutch Elm epidemic. Although many trees on public property were replanted, many on private property were not.
Trees currently make up just 26% of the city’s canopy cover. The organization’s goal is to increase canopy coverage to 40%. Greening Milwaukee re-establishes urban greenery by working with community groups and individual citizens to plant hundreds of trees throughout the spring and fall.
Click Here to read about the history of the Urban Forest.
The Adopt-a-Tree Initiative provides free trees to urban homeowners who agree to learn tree planting, care, and maintenance techniques. Bare Root Trees are usually available in the spring and are typically an oak tree variety. Click here for more information on the Adopt-a-Tree Initiative.