The City of Muscatine received a $2,000 Community Forestry Grant earlier this year, and that amount turned into a $4,000 effort to purchase trees for City parks thanks to a $2,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Muscatine, CBI Bank & Trust, and Donald Consulting Group.
“This was a matching grant and the effort to match it started with Rotary and expanded from there,” Barth Donald, Community Services Chair for the Rotary of Muscatine Club, said.
“With this grant we were able to purchase 11 trees,” Melissa Baker, Park Maintenance Supervisor for the City of Muscatine, said.
Rotary Club members along with staff from the City of Muscatine Parks and Recreation Department were originally scheduled to plant the trees in Lucas Park on Arbor Day (April 29) but inclement weather forced the postponement to last Friday.
The City of Muscatine is thankful for the invaluable support of local residents and businesses in their urban forestry efforts. Recently, volunteers from the Vision Center relocated 40 trees from the greenhouses at Weed Park to the tree nursery at the Muscatine Municipal Golf Course.
Baker said that the Parks and Recreation Department will be applying for more grants to fund the purchase of more trees to plant this Fall.