More than 90 volunteers plant trees across downtown Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Ninety-two volunteers planted trees in downtown Wilmington this weekend. This is a continuation of the work of the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees to get the city’s canopy back where it is supposed to be, according to Founder Connie Parker.

Parker says volunteers planted 60 trees across a 12-square block of the city from Queen street to 8th street.

Parker says the alliance has planted almost 700 trees since it started four years ago.

“Well, we try to plant in some of the areas that are more low or moderate income families that maybe can’t afford to do everything that they’d like to be able to do and because they lost part of their houses on occasion or are still trying to figure out how to get their houses back in shape after the hurricanes,” Parker said.

She says trees have multiple benefits like producing oxygen, providing shading, absorbing flood waters and blocking homes form severe weather threats like strong winds.

“They provide shade so that means, so that means you save money on your electricity in the summertime,” Parker said. “People wonder why they flood when they cut their trees down because trees absorb flood water. They keep us from having all the flood water in your yard afterwards.”

Parker says the group has distributed over 2,000 trees since they started, as well, and are planning another tree giveaway in the fall.