Colorado city of Lakewood looks to community to help improve urban tree canopy
There are roughly 700,000 trees in Lakewood today, but there could always be more.
"The more trees we can get in the ground the better," Luke Killoran, forestry supervisor for the city of Lakewood said.
According to Killoran, an assessment of the area showed Lakewood's total urban tree canopy sits at around 16%.
It also identified areas with a high number of trees and those that could benefit from more.
"One of our objectives to doing that is planting trees but on public property we are limited, we really needed the support from our private property owners," Killoran said.
In 2023, the city held its first tree sale, providing $25 trees to residents willing to plant them on their own. In 15 minutes, they sold out of 200 trees. So in 2024 they doubled that order.
"We sold out most of our trees went within 15 minutes again and overwhelmed with the support from our citizens," he said.
While the city doesn't necessarily make money from the sale, Killoran says they're will be a significant payoff for the community.
"The benefits the trees are going to provide for our community are exponentially greater than the cost of the initial tree," Killoran added.
The city's forestry department will provide resources for citizens if they have questions or concerns about how to plant, how to maintain or how to manage a tree or trees on their property.
