Bloomington: Parks and Recreation Planting Trees to Replace Those Removed for Powerline Project

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Bloomington, Ind. ~ Bloomington, Ind. - The city's Parks and Recreation department has announced plans to plant 157 trees in three different locations in 2024. In preparation for this project, the department is currently collecting quotes from tree planting companies. Interested businesses have until Feb. 23 to submit their bids for the project.

According to Parks and Recreation, the selected companies will be responsible for preparing each tree planting site, digging the holes, and planting, staking, mulching, and watering each tree. The trees themselves will be provided by the department.

This initiative comes as a result of Duke Energy's Bloomington Reliability Project in 2023, which involved the construction of new transmission lines along Rogers Street, 11th Street, and Dunn Street. As part of this project, 120 trees had to be removed from the transmission line corridor. In order to mitigate this loss of greenery, Duke Energy has contributed over $55,000 towards replacing these trees.

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To ensure that the new trees are planted in appropriate locations and can safely grow under the transmission lines, Parks and Recreation's urban forestry staff have marked the designated planting sites with pink flags and paint. These locations can also be viewed online through Treekeeper, the city's urban forest management system. Additionally, residents who own properties adjacent to these sites can contact Urban Forester Haskell Smith to suggest specific tree species for planting.

The upcoming tree planting project is part of a larger effort by Bloomington's Parks and Recreation department to increase greenery throughout the city. In 2018, as part of a series of Bicentennial bond projects, $800,000 was allocated for planting trees along streets and public rights-of-way. Potential planting sites were identified in 2019 through a city-wide inventory of street trees conducted by Davey Resource Group. Since 2020, over 350 street trees have been planted by the department's urban greenspace staff, with hundreds more seedling and sapling trees planted in city parks.

Filed Under: Government, City

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