Salt Lake City

Mayor's Office

Erin Mendenhall | (801) 535-7704

Salt Lake City and Dominion Energy Plant 205 Trees as Replanting Effort Gets Underway

SALT LAKE CITY – Salt Lake City and Dominion Energy planted 205 trees Thursday as part of Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s initiative to plant 1,000 additional trees throughout the City’s westside neighborhoods. The Mayor’s 1,000 trees initiative is aimed at addressing the inequitable distribution of the City’s urban forest by planting an increased amount of trees annually throughout the City’s westside.

More than 100 volunteers from Dominion met in Salt Lake City‘s Fairpark neighborhood, which lost many mature shade trees during the September 7 and 8 windstorm.

“Today we’re putting Silver Linden, Catalpa, English Oak, Spring Snow Crabapple, and Flowering Cherry trees into the ground to put down roots,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall. “It will take time for them to create a towering, mature canopy, but today’s efforts represent hope, growth and resilience.”

Thursday’s planting event was the largest single-day tree planting ever in Salt Lake City and the biggest volunteer tree-planting in at least a generation. 

“Dominion Energy is eager to be a part of Mayor Mendenhall’s urban forestry initiatives,” said Craig Wagstaff, Dominion Energy Senior Vice President and General Manager of Western Distribution. “It’s a great opportunity to help clean the air in the communities where we do business and to beautify Utah’s capital city.”

The hurricane-strength storm knocked down or damaged an estimated 1,500 trees on City property, and many more on private property. City crews, private contractors and agencies from neighboring communities have spent more than 20,000 hours on the cleanup effort. Crews have cleared an estimated 4,000 tons of storm debris, and have about 4,000 tons to go. The City anticipates cleanup work to be completed by mid- to late-October. 

City residents can request that a tree be planted in their park strip by contacting the Urban Forestry Department by phone at (801) 972-7818

In addition to Thursday’s planting event, Salt Lake City has also partnered with non-profit TreeUtah to ReTreeSLC by fundraising and planting trees on City property. For more information or to donate, visit: https://treeutah.networkforgood.com/projects/109575-retree-slc

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