Trees are budding, blooming, and leafing out all over the city in our usual springtime color explosion; this means that the growing season has begun and planting season has ended. This past planting season (mid-October 2022 through the end of March 2023) saw over 11,000 new trees planted across Nashville through all the partnerships of the citywide Root Nashville campaign. All campaign partners – including our Neighborhood Planting Captains, volunteer planters, and tree advocates and supporters – contributed towards this successful season, the fifth season of Root Nashville since its launch in October 2018.
Cumberland River Compact Projects
Of these 11,000+ trees planted as a city across Nashville, the Cumberland River Compact coordinated a total of 5,309: 4,193 trees through Neighborhood Planting Captains and community sites (private properties such as churches and small businesses), 656 trees planted through nonprofit small grants to projects coordinated by campaign partners, and 460 trees coordinated on public property through the Metro Tree Bank. We are so grateful for all the community members and neighbors who made this record-shattering season possible!
It all kicked off with a bang at our inaugural Fall Planting Party on Saturday, November 19. At five different sites across the city, over 250 trees were planted thanks to great partnerships, most especially our Neighborhood Planting Captains who lead outreach efforts in their communities.
Check out this short video to see how folks came together for our first Fall Planting Party to work toward our goals of creating a more environmentally equitable, healthy, and climate-resilient Nashville.
Ramping Up Our Planting
How did the Cumberland River Compact scale our efforts, more than doubling the number of trees planted over the course of one season?
The recently renewed “stream for trees” funding allowed us to ramp up through the infrastructure we already had in place: increasing the number of Neighborhood Planting Captains accepted into our programming. We worked with 59 captains in 54 neighborhoods over the season, bringing 2,564 trees to 1,097 households.
We also launched the brand-new large-scale site application. In one season, we completed projects at 68 different sites, including places like the Claiborne Family Worship Center in south Nashville, to the Meadows of Seven Points HOA in Hermitage and the Youth Opportunity Center (in partnership with Oasis) in midtown.
We’re All in This Together
Fortunately, we are not Nashville’s only tree planters. This snapshot here of planting projects from the Cumberland River Compact is one component of the citywide Root Nashville campaign, which includes many partners. Stay tuned for season highlights featuring Metro Water Services, our co-lead in the Root Nashville campaign, as well as partner nonprofits. Check out Root Nashville planting contributors here. We encourage Nashvillians to follow the work of these organizations as well!