How to Plant 500,000 Trees: One at a Time

Charlotte, N.C., likes to be known as the City of Trees, but keeping that name requires a lot of work because development and aging trees are threats to the city's tree canopy. So the city decided in 2011 to cover half of Charlotte with trees by 2050. Doing that requires planting 500,000 trees.

That's where TreesCharlotte comes in. The public-private partnership is dedicated to planting trees. In 2017 it will plant or give away more than 4,000 trees at 18 events in neighborhoods and schools, and give away about 8,000 trees and seedlings. Volunteers from Duke Energy recently joined the effort, planting trees at Briarwood Park. Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas are longtime partners with the group. About 4,000 Duke Energy and Piedmont Natural Gas employees and retirees in 2016 contributed about 100,000 volunteer hours in their communities through Duke Energy in Action.

"We’re planting trees with volunteers as part of our effort this season to expand and diversify the tree canopy in Charlotte,” said Dave Cable of TreesCharlotte. “We’re planting about 70 to 80 trees, a variety of different trees to give this park a little bit more life and expand Charlotte’s urban forest.”