Plant It and They Will Come: Trees Atlanta and LMMNA’s Urban Forest Proejct

(Contributed by LMMNA Members Rich and Dorothy Sussman)

A “city in the forest”— that’s what you see as you fly into Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Atlanta has the highest percentage of tree-canopy coverage of any major city in the country (it’s 47.9%), but according to a study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, tree removal due to changes in land use is threatening this distinction.

When it learned that a house in the floodplain at 2372 Armand Road would be demolished and acquired by the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, LMMNA approached Trees Atlanta about converting this property into our neighborhood’s first urban forest.

Trees Atlanta initiated conversations with the city to make this request a reality. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of 2020, scores of Trees Atlanta volunteers planted 95 trees and shrubs on the property. These plantings included paw-paws, blueberries, sweet bay magnolias, redbuds, sweet gums, and overcup oaks.

Now an evergreen haven for birds, pollinators, and other beneficial insects, the forest will be a boon to our community. By planting and protecting trees, our neighborhood will:

Improve air quality by removing pollutants and carbon dioxide.
Contribute to biodiversity.
Help cool our neighborhood’s streets.
Reduce erosion.
Conserve energy.
Increase the beauty and economic value of homes in our neighborhood.
Have a new greenspace to enjoy as part of our community.

Click the images below for a full gallery of pictures from the MLK Day planting! For more information, reach out to Rich Sussman at npu@lmmna.org.