Hamilton to buy 1,750 trees to be planted across the city

Wilks Foundation donation will allow half the trees will be given to residents to replace residential canopies.
Hamilton was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Wilks Foundation to plant 1,750 new trees over the next five years. The city will purchase 350 trees a year from 2025 to 2029, with half the trees being given to residents to replace the canopy lost for the Emerald Ash borer and/or dead and declining trees. The other half would be planted in public city-owned green spaces. Pictured in this November 2016 file photo is a crew with Wilson Garden Center Inc. planting trees along the median of Ohio 129 in Hamilton. NICK GRAHAM/FILE

Hamilton was awarded a $200,000 grant from the Wilks Foundation to plant 1,750 new trees over the next five years. The city will purchase 350 trees a year from 2025 to 2029, with half the trees being given to residents to replace the canopy lost for the Emerald Ash borer and/or dead and declining trees. The other half would be planted in public city-owned green spaces. Pictured in this November 2016 file photo is a crew with Wilson Garden Center Inc. planting trees along the median of Ohio 129 in Hamilton. NICK GRAHAM/FILE

Hamilton was approached by the Wilks Foundation concerning the Ash trees being removed in the city because of the threat by the Emerald Ash borer, as well as other dying trees.

Both agreed something needed to be done and the Wilks Foundation agreed to give the city $200,000 that will allow the city to buy 1,750 five gallon trees starting this summer and through 2029.

“We’re going to (buy) 350 a year,” Hamilton’s Municipal Arborist Dave Bienemann said. “We’re going to give them out, half to citizens, to plant in their yard to reforest the canopy across the city.”

The other half will be planted across the city, he said, in green spaces, city parks and anywhere they have open space.

“It’s going to be a pretty big project, and part of the grant is to pay for an intern full-time, buy another water truck and some equipment,” he said.

Bienemann said they’ll look at purchasing keystone trees that are native to southwest Ohio “and the whole idea is to improve our ecosystem, pollinators.”

The Wilks Foundation was founded by the late Harry T. Wilks, and among his many passions were planting trees.

“Trees are very important for our health. Hamilton, when I grew up there, used to have lots of trees,” said daughter Barbara Wilks, who grew up on the heavily forested Columbia Road. “We’re still pretty lucky but the older ones are starting to die off and it’s important to replace them with new trees.”

New trees also help beautify the city in addition to being a health measure, she said, adding trees are “a big part of our identity. It’s kind of a forest city.”

Bienemann is a city department of one with a few interns from Miami and the University of Cincinnati. He has several research project going on and looking for more grant money to plant more trees in Hamilton. He currently administers about $1.2 million in grants, and is always looking for more.

“There’s another $1 million floating out there,” he said.

The Wilks Foundation grant does not require the city to commit any matching funds. Most of the grant, about $112,000, will be spent on the purchase of the trees. Nearly $85,000 will be for the new vehicle purchase, equipment and the salary for a city intern.

The remaining funds of the grant, about $3,000, will go to administrative costs managing the program.

The new trees will be planted and distributed to residents later this year. The foundation requests and annual report, providing information on the types of trees planted and their locations.

“It’s a really great opportunity for our city. We’ll be doing a marketing program in August, roll it out in September,” he said.

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