City Of Concord Invites Community To Help Plant 'Micro Forest'

Press release from the City of Concord:

CONCORD, CA —Join the city of Concord on Saturday, Sept. 28 for Ayers Elementary Micro Forest Planting.

Volunteers are needed to help plant more than 700 trees and shrubs from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the campus at 5120 Myrtle Drive.

The school's micro forest is made possible by an IRA-funded, U.S. Forest Service Urban and Community Forest grant.

About The Program

In 2024, the City of Concord received a $1 million grant to improve the management, condition, and education of its urban forest. As part of the grant, the City of Concord committed to collaborating with local educators at Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) to create an educational and outreach opportunity to engage students on the value of trees in the community.

After collaborative meetings and planning with MDUSD staff, the Ayers Elementary School site was chosen as an ideal location for the micro forest based on the school's ability to facilitate the forest there, the desire of the Ayers School community to expand their Gardening Club Program, and MDUSD’s commitment to ensuring that the school staff and student body would be heavily engaged in maintaining the Micro Forest.

The City of Concord staff worked diligently over the last 8 months with a contracted Landscape Architect and MDUSD leadership to draft a Micro Forest Planting Plan suitable for the location. Through this partnership, with guidance from the City's Urban Forest program and the commitment of daily and weekly attention of the Ayers teaching staff, the student body, and MDUSD’s maintenance team; the Ayers Micro Forest will provide an amazing opportunity for students and the community to engage on the values and benefits of planting trees in urbanized areas. The City and MDUSD are excited to bring this amazing opportunity to the community and look forward to seeing the forest grow and produce a compact, environmentally friendly, and sustainable green space on an otherwise unused area of Ayer’s campus.

Download a PDF event flyer.

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This press release was produced by the City of Concord. The views expressed here are the author’s own.