Bartlett Tree Experts will give away 250 lilac and spruce tree seedlings at the Marblehead Farmers’ Market on June 10. The seedlings are being given away as part of the Bartlett Legacy Tree Program, which has distributed over 609,000 tree seedlings since its inception in 2014.
Celebrating its ninth anniversary this year, the Bartlett Legacy Tree Program aims to support tree planting and stewardship in local communities through the annual distribution of seedlings in schools, at community events, and for reforestation efforts. During the first half of this year, more than 65,000 trees are being distributed by Bartlett Tree Experts employees through the program. Many of those seedlings are handed out or planted in the spring as part of Arbor Day and Earth Day festivities, events, and activities.
Jacob Maynard, an arborist representative in Bartlett’s Beverly Farms office, is a member of Sustainable Marblehead. The organization will have a table set up at the Farmers’ Market, where arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts will give away seedlings to community members.
“Our Legacy Tree Program is all about bringing trees and people together,” said Maynard. “This is a great way for Bartlett Tree Experts to make a difference while giving back to our communities and improving the environment.”
With all of Bartlett’s 163 offices participating, the seedlings have been given away in over 30 U.S. states, three Canadian provinces, and numerous locations in the United Kingdom and Dublin, Ireland.
The goals of the program are raising awareness of the benefits of planting trees and helping local communities reverse the increasing deficit of urban and suburban trees lost to development.
Since the inception of the Legacy Tree Program nine years ago, Bartlett Tree Experts has supported the planting of trees after natural disasters as well as to help increase the urban tree canopy. “It’s gratifying to see our program making a difference each year,” said Program Manager Patrick Franklin.
Under the program, the tree species are selected for distribution by geographic region with a focus on increasing the local diversity of native tree populations.