Proud to be from Pittsburgh: Tree Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — A lot of you will plant flowers and vegetables this weekend, but the nonprofit Tree Pittsburgh is one step ahead of you.

The organization is on a mission to protect and restore Pittsburgh’s urban forest one tree at a time.

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Channel 11's Peggy Finnegan caught up with leaders at their new nursery site in Lawrenceville.

“We plant all the seeds we collect here in our greenhouse,” said nursery manager Megan Palomo. “We’ve grown around 10,000 trees about 90 different species, most of which are native and some which are heritage trees."

Executive Director Danielle Crumrine pointed out how volunteers removed the trash from the Riverfront.

“The river front was blighter, over grown, invasive species were growing,” she said.

Now the long stretch of land is being transformed from brownfield into a place where trees grow.

“They give us oxygen, take in carbon dioxide, and other pollutants like that,” said tree care and restoration coordinator Jake Milofsky. “They filter storm water. They give wildlife places to live. They give us shade.”

Milofsky is passionate about trees and has trained thousands of tree tenders and volunteers .

Recently, they planted hundreds of trees on a hillside in Polish Hill.

They are young tree but soon they will look like those planed on East Liberty Boulevard nearly a decade ago.

Tree Pittsburgh has planted 25,000 trees since it started, restoring the urban forest and making Pittsburgh an even more beautiful place in which to live.

To learn more or to volunteer, CLICK HERE.

WPXI