Grantsville residents still have two more weeks to place orders on trees for the street outside their homes or their yards.
The city’s street tree program allows residents to buy a tree to plant along the street or roadway, with Grantsville City covering half of the cost of purchase. The program, which is carried out by Grantsville’s Shade Tree Commission, also allows for the purchase of trees for resident’s yards at full price.
Trees on the curb cost homeowners only $36, with the city subsidizing the remaining $36 of the cost. A tree for a resident’s yard will cost the full $72.
Orders for the street and residential trees are due back to Grantsville City Hall by April 22. The application requires residents agree to plant trees purchased with the city’s subsidy between their yard and the street, and also promise to water and maintain the trees.
The trees will be available for pickup on Arbor Day, April 29, at the parking lot of Grantsville City Hall. Residents should be able to pick their trees up between noon and 5 p.m.
Grantsville City Mayor Brent Marshall said the tree program benefits the community in a couple ways. In addition to the aesthetic improvements, planting more trees and greenery helps lighten the city’s carbon footprint, he said.
There will be eight different species of tree available through the program, which include the regal prince oak, common hackberry, London plane, green ash, crab apple, linden, honey locust and Canada red. More details on the types of trees can be found on the application form, available at grantsvilleut.gov, or at treebrowser.org.
The city collects orders for the trees in order to get a bulk rate discount and pass the savings onto residents, Marshall said. While the money for the order is collected by the city, it does not profit on the tree program, he said.
According to a release from the city, Grantsville’s streets were once lined with large trees. Marshall said the city’s old irrigation ditches spurred the growth of trees, like silver poplars, along the waterways.
When Grantsville Reservoir was completed in the late 1980s, the city stopped using the irrigation ditches. As the ditches dried up, the trees that relied on that water died.
“It was after the reservoir was completed that the tree program was started,” Marshall said.
Since the inception of the tree program 11 years ago, more than 1,600 trees have been planted. Due to the success of the program, Grantsville has been awarded the Tree City USA designation by the Arbor Day Foundation every year since 2003.