City of Colorado Springs designates April as “Tree Month”

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- This April is "Tree Month" in Colorado Springs as the city celebrates its 150th anniversary.

This year, City Forestry plans to plant a total of 391 public trees. The vast majority of this planting will take place in irrigated medians, including 302 hardy, drought-tolerant trees, like hackberry, linden, catalpa, oaks and ponderosa pines. 

Dennis Will, City Forester said, “What it does is it changes the environment. It slows the wind down, it creates habitat it creates visual aesthetic beauty.”

In addition to the median plantings, 73 assorted species will be strategically planted in parks citywide, offering future shade for picnic tables, playgrounds, pathways, and streetscapes. 

The city is also asking for your help, as part of the COS 150: Tree Challenge residents and business owners are encouraged to plant a tree and track its progress. The goal of the project is to plant 18,071 new trees citywide, a nod to the city’s founding in 1871. Will says that the amount of people taking up the challenge has been great to see.

“We get groups calling to donate and wanting to volunteer time to plant trees. We know that by talking to our nurseries that they have sold over 20,000 trees over the last 10 years or so every year. So the challenge is not so much the buy and plant the trees, it’s the tracking of the ones actually being put in the ground.”

If you plant a tree and want to track it you can do so by clicking here.