KIB Tree Planting for Beauty, Livability

Volunteers are heading to Beech Grove this weekend to plant about 100 trees.

The effort is designed to make the city look better, but also aid with flooding issues.

"They clean the air of particulate matter that is just not good for us to be breathing," said Keep Indianapolis Beautiful President David Forsell.  "Every time we have a significant rain in Indianapolis, raw sewage flows into our river and into our streams.  Trees help mitigate some of that water runoff and in that very real way keep our rivers and our streams cleaner."

Trees are going up around the grounds of the Benedict Inn, a center for retired nuns.

Forsell says residents there want it to be a place for community engagement and respite.

"Trees are a big part of that," he said.  "While they have some mature trees, they would like to reforest the ground even more all with the intent of creating a beautiful, inviting, and restful place, not only for themselves, but for the surrounding neighborhoods."

Last week, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful planted 25 trees along College Avenue and Forsell hopes to have between 2,000 and 3,000 thousand planted this year.

Volunteers will plant Oaks, Maple, Sycamore, and Yellowwood among others.

"Green places, particularly in urban communities do a variety of things; more sociability, less aggression, less anxiety.  It even calms traffic," he said.  "The data really suggests that urban trees really play a crucial role."

And he says Saturday's event is designed to bring the community together.

"You roll your sleeves up and get to know people you might otherwise not have known and you dive in in a very simple way to improve the local environment and to improve the beauty of the city," said Forsell.