About this project

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UC Green is an urban greening non-profit organization in Philadelphia, PA.  Each year, UC Green volunteers plant and tend hundreds of street trees in West and Southwest Philadelphia, contributing thousands of hours in service to the community.  Since 1998, UC Green volunteers have planted 3,774 street trees!

This fall we are going to take our street tree planting one step further by planting an urban orchard!  We're teaming up with the Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) to plant fruit and nut trees along the streets of West and Southwest Philadelphia.  POP works with community-based groups and volunteers to plan and plant orchards in vacant lots, schoolyards, and other neglected urban spaces all over the City of Philadelphia.  With their expertise and UC Green's committed volunteer corps, we will plant approximately 100 new fruit and nut street trees in West and Southwest Philadelphia in the Fall of 2011!

Why fruit and nut trees?

Non-fruiting street trees already offer incredible benefits to city dwellers.  Street trees reduce the effects of air pollution, noise pollution, and storm water runoff, conserve energy (and money!), beautify neighborhoods, and increase property values and the amount of pride people take in their community.  And if you'll believe it, fruit and nut trees can accomplish all that and more!  

Fruiting street trees provide fresh food that is easily (and legally!) accessible to everyone in the city.  By planting an urban orchard, we hope to increase the city’s overall food security and reduce our reliance on increasingly expensive imported produce.  And, while fruit and nut trees do require watering, weeding, and pruning, they are less resource and labor intensive than most other crops that can be grown in the city.  Plus, fruit and nut trees sequester more carbon emissions than the softwood trees typically planted for carbon offsets, so the urban orchard can do more to help reduce the effects of global warming!

(Also, particular care is being taken to select species that will not create a mess by dropping fruit or heavy nuts onto the street.)

How will we do it and how can YOU help?

Every year UC Green organizes two large tree planting events, one in the spring and one in the fall.  During these events, volunteers plant between 30 and 100 street trees all over West and Southwest Philadelphia.  We have an incredible network of community partners and volunteers who help make these events successful.  So what makes the urban orchard planting special?  Fruit and nut trees are more difficult to source than more common street trees so it will take greater effort on the part of the UC Green staff and volunteer corps to properly choose, acquire, and store these trees.  That's where you come in!  The money you donate to this project will allow us the flexibility to plant these trees and contribute to Philadelphia's growing urban orchard.  We will also save paper, money, and time by eliminating the paper mailing campaign that was planned to help raise money for this project - and YOU won't get another annoying letter in the mail begging you for money!.  (Remember that you can donate any amount you want to this project, then choose your reward from any of the reward levels listed that are equal to or less than that amount of money.)

Thank you for your donation and we look forward to seeing you at UC Green's Urban Orchard planting on Sat. Nov. 19th, 2011!  Thanks as well to our supporters and partners:

www.phillyorchards.org

www.milkandhoneymarket.com

www.gridphilly.com

www.organicmechanicsoil.com

www.westphillytools.org

www.whisperleaves.com

www.readingterminalmarket.org

www.bartramsgarden.org