Pensacola Volunteers Will Plant More Than 200 Trees This Month to Replace the Canopy Isaias Took
The Canopy Restoration Project's largest planting yet runs over the first three weekends of November, starting November 7. The city arborist's preliminary estimate puts East Hill's canopy loss at as much as 15 percent.
Pensacola's storm-thinned neighborhoods are about to get some of their shade back, one front yard at a time. The Canopy Restoration Project, a volunteer-run nonprofit founded in 2022, is preparing to plant more than 200 new trees across the city and Escambia County over the first three weekends in November, beginning November 7 - and it is looking for volunteers to help, the Pensacola News Journal reported Monday. The effort was already in the works before Hurricane Isaias struck, but the storm has given the group's mission renewed urgency.
The scale of what was lost is still being counted. City arborist Mose Franklin said the hurricane caused significant damage to the city's tree canopy, particularly in East Hill, where he estimates as much as 15 percent of the canopy may have been lost - a figure he cautioned is only a preliminary estimate for some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods, not the city as a whole; the city has not yet completed a comprehensive assessment. 'It's an extremely significant storm event that has changed the trajectory of our canopy,' Franklin said. In East Pensacola Heights, co-founder Chelsea Mahan said of her own street: 'I mean, the whole look of the block is just so dramatically changed. It doesn't even look the same.'
The planting is deliberate about what goes back in the ground. The group plants five native species - live oaks, sand live oaks, red maples, winged elms and little gem magnolias - in front and side yards, within the public right-of-way or within 20 feet beyond it, so the shade is shared by the whole street. Residents can request up to three trees, an arborist evaluates each site, and volunteers provide a care plan for the young trees afterward. 'If you plant back the right tree, the right place, it will protect you,' Mahan said, calling live oaks 'storm warriors' for how they rode out the wind. The city projects are supported by grants from Pensacola's Tree Trust Fund, the county project receives separate county support, and Panhandle Growers supplies the trees wholesale. 'It's the most trees we've ever planted,' Mahan said. Volunteers and residents requesting a tree can sign up at canopyrestorationproject.com.
