Welcome!

Hi my name is Maggie Small and I am the tree warden for the Worcester Tree Initiative. I started as a volunteer intern with WTI in September 2009 and throughout the year have fallen in love with the City of Worcester and the work of the Worcester Tree Initiative. This summer I received funding from the Barth Internship Award at Clark Univerisity which will allow me to continue my work.

The Worcester Tree Initiative is a private, non-profit effort to reforest the City of Worcester and surrounding communities. It was Initiated in January 2009 by Congressman Jim McGovern and Lt. Governor Tim Murray with the intent of planting 30,000 trees in Worcester and surrounding towns in the next 5 years. The Initiative is a public/private partnership between the City of Worcester, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, the US Department of Agriculture, many local non-profits, businesses and residents of Central Massachusetts. The program includes intensive outreach, education and training, and long term tracking to realize significant environmental and quality of life improvements with this community based approach.

This spring we have already accomplished many great things:

With the help of the Worcester Forestry Department the week of April 26th - April 30th we worked with 8 Worcester Public Schools planting over 90 trees and educating over a 1,000 students on the proper way to plant a tree.

We have held two giveaway events and have two more to still host (May 27th and June 5th). At the giveaways we do a 30 minute demonstration on the proper way to plant a tree and then those who attend the event are able to take a tree home. We offer a variety of different tree species ornimental, shade and evergreen. In total we have already given away over 100 trees at giveaway events this spring.

We have also worked with community groups:

May 1st we planted 100 trees at Quinsigamond Community college with the help of volunteers from CSX, City Year, and Quinsigamond communtiy college.

With the help of volunteers from Clark University on "Just Do It Day" we planted 5 trees for the WHRC.

We have also done plantings at Great Brook Valley and May Flower Circle.

Upcoming events still to come this spring:

2 Giveaways (May 27th and June 5th) along with more schools and community events.

“For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks.”-- Friedrich Nietzche