The first steps in a new project to continue beautifying Greenwood and its parks may soon be underway.
After receiving a $20,000 grant from the Mississippi Forestry Commission in late 2020, Greenwood was given the opportunity to put forth a plan for assessing the trees in the city’s parks.
The state agency says its mission is “to provide active leadership in forest protection, forest management, forest inventory and effective forest information distribution necessary for Mississippi’s sustainable forest-based economy.”
The Greenwood project is titled “Greenwood Public Park Tree Inventory & Reforestation Plan.”
The contractor hired for it, Brantley Snipes of Brantley Snipes Landscape Design, said the project is not about replanting trees. “It’s a study of what trees we have and what needs to be done — and then how we plan to do it,” she said.
Snipes is also the director of Main Street Greenwood, although this project will not be conducted through that group.
Nine of the 12 parks in Greenwood have been prioritized for the project. The only parkland that is not being surveyed for inventory is the area of the Yazoo River Trail and Arboretum.
“The goal of this project is to create a road map to enhance and beautify and enhance our parks and make them more welcoming to the citizens of Greenwood,” Snipes explained.
She said the plan it to inventory the trees in each park and then come up with a maintenance plan to improve their vitality. After all of the trees in each park have been inventoried, design concepts will be drawn up to replant trees over time.
The city will be provided a tree inventory software system called “TreePlotter,” which will help store and keep track of any city-owned trees in the nine prioritized parks. Many attributes of the trees will be tabulated, including location, species and condition.
Mayor Carolyn McAdams said the city has a year to complete the project, starting in August. The project still must be approved by the City Council by Aug. 1. It is expected to be on the agenda when the council meets Tuesday.
Snipes said she does not expect the project to take a year to finish.
McAdams said that the trees of Greenwood bring many valuable qualities for the city.
“If you took every tree away from Greenwood, it wouldn’t be nearly as attractive,” she said. “If you take away that, you take away the beauty of the city.”
Snipes said those interested in planting trees or wanting to help fund future planting projects should contact her or McAdams for more information.
- Contact Drew Richardson at 581-7233 or drichardson@gwcommonwealth.com
