“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is NOW.” – Anon/Chinese Proverb
Founded in 1988, the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program (PNPP) is a partnership between the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Providence Neighborhood Planting Program Fund, the City of Providence, and community members of Providence.
As of June 2024, PNPP and the City’s Forestry Division have split, in a 50/50 match, the cost and coordination of planting over 15,500 street trees, in collaboration with hundreds of neighborhood groups and thousands of residents across the city.
Trees can be planted along any public city street: in front of homes, businesses, schools, churches, community spaces–as long as PNPP determines there’s enough room at that site for a tree, and that there is someone committed to watering/stewarding it. Currently, PNPP plants an average of 500-550 street trees per year and prioritizes plantings in neighborhoods that have the lowest tree canopy cover.
As Spring approaches and some of us plant new trees with PNPP, others can enjoy the results of past plantings which are creating a beautiful and beneficial canopy on our city streets.
Here is a partial list of the many activities the group accomplished in 2024:
525 – total trees planted
41 – different species of trees planted
26 – neighborhood plantings with volunteers
5 – people comprise the PNPP team
48 – people were trained and certified as Providence Community Tree Keepers to maintain young trees on streets and parks
67 – percent of trees planted were in low-canopy neighborhoods
15 – neighborhoods benefitted from plantings
546 – young trees were watered and kept alive by community partners
10,000th – tree was planted in 2013
30+ – year partnership with Peggy Sharpe
Sources:
https://pnpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/PNPP-2024-Annual-Report-Final.pdf
Nini Stoddard is a proud Providence resident. After living abroad as the child of a US diplomat, she returned to the United States to attend college. She lived in Connecticut and enjoyed working as a librarian, as a director of a regional non-profit, and as a prospect researcher. Nini moved to Providence in 2006 to work at Brown University as a senior prospect researcher. Now retired, she loves local history and volunteering.
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