St. Pete holds 2 tree giveaways to regain canopy growth after Hurricane Milton

St. Pete tree giveaway

FOX 13's Jordan Bowen shares that 500 trees were given out to combat the canopy loss during Hurricane Milton.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla - When Hurricane Milton hit in October, it wiped out thousands of trees across Tampa Bay. In St. Pete, crews responded to more than 2,000 reports of downed trees.

The local environmental advocacy group Take Mar, a local environmental advocacy group, estimates that the city lost up to 20 percent of its tree canopy during the hurricane.

What they're saying:

"Right now we are waiting for LiDAR to be able to fly over to look at exactly that our numbers are and where we've lost the most to try to target some of these tree programs and see how people want to kind of replant and what trees they would like to plant so we know there's a significant lost there," City of St. Pete Sustainability & Resilience Director Maeven Rogers said.

The backstory:

That is why the City of St. Pete has committed to planting 1,000 trees this year. On Saturday, the city hosted two tree giveaways at the Walter Fuller and Frank Pierce recreation centers where they gave out a total of 500 trees to interested residents, giving out up to one tree per household.

The city of St. Pete held two tree giveaways on Saturday to help grow back some of the tree canopy lost during Hurricane Milton.

"Trees are very important for a multitude of reasons. Obviously, one is our natural habitat, another is to really combat these urban heat island impacts that we're really seeing across the community and across neighborhoods. We know it's getting a little bit warmer, so we want to try to decrease those temperatures," Rogers said.

If residents plan on planting trees, Rodgers says they should make sure larger trees like oak trees are planted in areas with enough space for the roots to grow.

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If there's not enough space, it can make the tree much more vulnerable and are more likely to come down during a storm.

The city of St. Pete held two tree giveaways on Saturday to help grow back some of the tree canopy lost during Hurricane Milton.

"If you go into a neighborhood that has a high tree canopy, you're more likely to see a degrees go down. So you're seeing a degrees change, so. Anywhere from we can see from four degrees to up to seven to nine degrees sometimes if you have enough trees in your neighborhood. So we're really encouraging residents to come out plant trees and cool down their neighborhoods," Rogers said.

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The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Jordan Bowen.

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