Community groups build Providence’s urban forest

METRO Local planting organizations, advocates aim to improve tree equity

BY JULIANNA CHANG STAFF WRITER

“Say, ‘Trees!’”

A group of 10 volunteers gathered around a freshly planted 3-foot-tall oak tree along a Mt. Hope street Saturday afternoon. After watching leaders from the providence Neighborhood planting program demonstrate how to plant the oak tree, the 10 volunteers posed for a quick photo, grabbed worn pairs of rubber gloves and set off to plant another 13 trees.

Saturday’s tree planting, led by pNpp Executive Director Cassie Tharinger, was the first of the season. According to Tharinger, pNpp is a community-led organization engaging local residents in planting and maintaining trees on city property to create a larger and more equitable urban forest. Each season, the organization — the city’s “largest force behind new tree plantings,” according to Alexander J. Elton, city forester and director of providence’s Forestry Division — hosts anywhere from 15 to 25