Thanks to funding through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and the US Forest Service a total of eight Great Lakes coastal communities on Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are benefiting from trees planted by the Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) and the Great Lakes Conservation Corps (GLCC).
Each community will receive between 500-1,000 native trees used in both landscape and streetscape settings to provide numerous environmental, economic and aesthetic benefits including improved stormwater quality, flood prevention and habitat improvement.
A total of 5,500 trees will be planted in the eight communities with the ability to filter approximately 320,000 gallons of stormwater runoff annually according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates.
The Superior Watershed Partnership (SWP) in cooperation with the Community Foundation of the Upper Peninsula (CFUP) recently received a $99,985 grant through the GLRI to plant trees in the coastal communities of Escanaba, Manistique and Munising.
This complements another recent GLRI grant in the amount of $166,194 to plant trees in Ontonagon, Menominee, St. Ignace, Marquette and Houghton. With the recent 1,000 year severe rain and flooding event in the City of Houghton the tree planting assistance will also provide much needed erosion control and watershed restoration benefits.
The tree planting project promotes more resilient communities and climate adaptation by using site-appropriate native tree species that will be planted in degraded areas including but not limited to coastal and riparian areas as prioritized by city staff in cooperation with the SWP, GLCC and other project partners. The GLCC recently completed planting 1,000 trees in Ontonagon, Menominee and St. Ignace (3,000 total).
For more information on this project and other Great Lakes restoration projects please visit the SWP website: www.superiorwatersheds.org
