Cazenovia Park Community Tree-Planting

The City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy is proud to announce a community tree-planting in the City of Buffalo’s Cazenovia Park on November 5th from 9:00am to 12:00 Noon. The planting of 30 trees is made possible by a grant from the CSX Corporation secured by the Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees). The donation is valued at $10,000 and will pay for the cost of the trees and their maintenance. “This tree-planting comes 5 years after the October Surprise Storm which damaged about 90% of all the trees in the City of Buffalo” said Thomas Herrera-Mishler, president and CEO of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy. “This donation means a lot and will help to replenish Buffalo’s urban forest.” added Mayor Byron W. Brown. In addition to damaging 90% of the city’s trees, the October Surprise Storm resulted in 10% of the trees in the Olmsted Park System being lost outright. Additionally, another 5% have been extremely stressed and have shown a decline in health since.

“The Alliance for Community Trees is pleased to be able to help direct these funds to the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy for urban park tree planting. ACTrees is a national partner with CSX on its Trees for Tracks campaign, which has a goal of planting 21,000 trees--one for every mile of track in the CSX railway system” said Leland Milstein of ACTrees.

At its peak the Buffalo Olmsted Parks system (the nation’s first) boasted 42,000 trees. Currently that number is down to only 15,000, including the 3,000 that have been planted since the October Surprise Storm. Over the years, disease, over maturity, insects, and severe weather conditions have all taken their toll on the parks’ trees.

For those interested in volunteering, please contact Steven Nagowski by e-mailing volunteer@bfloparks.org or by calling (716) 835-1300 ext 15.

The Alliance for Community Trees (ACTrees) is dedicated to improving the environment where 80% of Americans live-cities, towns and metropolitan areas. Together, local ACT member organizations have planted 15 million trees with help from 10.7 million volunteer hours nationwide. http://actrees.org/site/about-us/mission/ .

CSX Corporation, together with its subsidiaries based in Jacksonville, Fla., is one of the nation's leading transportation suppliers. The company’s rail and intermodal businesses provide rail-based transportation services including traditional rail service and the transport of intermodal containers and trailers. Overall, the CSX Transportation network encompasses about 21,000 route miles of track in 23 states, the District of Columbia and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. More than two-thirds of Americans live within CSX’s service territory, accounting for about three-quarters of the nation’s consumption.