Friday, April 24, 2009

Celebrating Arbor Day


Today we celebrate Arbor Day and I was honored to be joined by the members of five consulates for our third City of Miami Arbor Day celebration. The Consul Generals of Israel, Mexico, Uruguay, Haiti, and the United Kingdom, and their staffs, joined me and 140 volunteers at Archbishop Curley Senior High to plant 215 trees in the Little Haiti/Buena Vista area. That is up from 120 trees planted last year.
I am also honored that the Consul General of Israel for Florida, Ofer Bavly, planted a circle of five trees in my honor in Israel, and presented me with a certificate during our Arbor Day celebration.
Using our tree trust fund the city will plant over 3,000 trees this year through events like this, fruit tree giveaways, right-of-way plantings, plantings at schools, and many other efforts.
The vision for the Green Miami Campaign is to restore and enhance the city of Miami’s tree canopy into a thriving urban forest that provides multiple aesthetic and environmental benefits. The long-term goal is to increase the city of Miami’s tree canopy to 30% by 2017.
Through our tree trust fund, city residents can request a free tree by calling 305-960-4NET.

Below are some of the responses volunteers left in our volunteer story box, which began with "I came here to plant today because"…

To support the environment and leave a lasting impression on this planet.

Let’s green up Miami! Giving back to the community is a great way to help out.

It’s important to start in our own back yard and restore what we have taken.

Always a pleasure to participate in assisting the community to grow.

I Love doing something positive to help another—we actually get back ten-fold.

Thank you volunteers!

Watch a video of our Arbor Day Activities.

- Manny