A $15,000 donation has been made to Tucson’s effort to plant a million trees across the city, Mayor Regina Romero said Friday.
Local bottler and distributor Swire Coca-Cola, USA made the donation to the Tucson Million Trees Project. The money will be used to plant 300 trees on a vacant city-owned 10,000-square-foot parcel in the Barrio Centro neighborhood, the city said in a news release.
Green stormwater infrastructure will be included to provide a sustainable source of water for the trees.
Residents will be given a chance to help develop the project.
A tree-planting is expected to occur in October.
“My thanks to Swire Coca-Cola for stepping up with this generous donation that will help cool the Barrio Centro neighborhood and provide a new community greenspace,” Romero said in the release. “This is a great example of how the public and private sectors can work together to act on climate. Climate change is a crisis that affects each and every one of us, and it will take all of us working together to overcome and build resiliency.”
In October, the city hired Nicole Gillett, an urban forestry program manager, to lead the tree-planting initiative.
The city’s tree-planting campaign is focused on planting native and drought-resilient trees. It will prioritize neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to extreme heat, which are often low-tree canopy and low-income communities of color.
