Trees Atlanta Accomplishments

Trees Atlanta has traditionally had a heavy focus on planting trees along the sidewalks of our central business district and in spaces created in adjoining parking lots. Since 1985, we have planted over 14,000 large shade trees downtown. We have planted majestic shade trees along Spring Street, Carnegie Way, Ellis, Luckie, Williams, Courtland and Marietta streets; International Boulevard, Peachtree Center Avenue, John Wesley Dobbs, Ralph D. Abernathy, Central, Trinity and Auburn Avenues and Northside Drive and Techwood Drive
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Before Trees Atlanta

After After Trees Atlanta

We have done major tree plantings around the Georgia Dome, the World Congress Center, the MARTA stations, and around the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site, and at Georgia Tech, the Atlanta University Center and Georgia State University. We have also landscaped around most of the downtown churches: First Congregational, Ebenezer Baptist, Friendship Baptist, Big Bethel, Wheat Street Baptist, Zion Grove Baptist, All Saints Episcopal, the Perfect Church, First Methodist, First Baptist, and Saint Luke's and around several Public Housing Complexes.

Individuals, corporations, and foundations contribute to make our plantings possible. We offer memberships to individuals, families, corporations, and civic groups. Some of our tree plantings have been funded by U.S. Forest Service grants.

To get instant shade and visual impact, we plant large hardwood shade trees that are about 18 feet tall (3.5 inch trunk diameter) and beautiful evergreen Magnolias and Hollies. The trees are grown in nearby commercial nurseries and are generally urban-hardy upland swamp species. Some of the species are: Willow Oak, Legacy Sugar Maple, Green Vase Zelkova, Village Green Zelkova, Lacebark Elm, Darlington Oak, Laurel Oak, Bracken's Brown Beauty Magnolia, Natchez Crepe Myrtle and Nellie R. Stevens Holly.

When we plant and maintain large shade trees downtown, we hire specialized landscape contractors to do the work. The work has to be done very carefully because there are numerous utility lines under the ground along with granite foundations of old buildings. Most of our trees are planted in landscape strips created at the edges of parking lots. These landscape areas are enhanced with evergreen shrubs to provide year-round green. We maintain (water, spray and prune) the street trees that we plant for a three-year period after planting and continue to care for the trees if they have special needs. The parking lot owners agree to maintain those planted in their property. We are one of the few citizens' tree groups in the country with a three-year maintenance program.