Governor Beshear has announced nearly $1.7 million dollars in grants for community forestry projects around the commonwealth. The city of Jackson, in Breathitt County, was awarded 172-thousand dollars for their Open Space Planning and Tree Planting Project. Mayor Laura Thomas said the news is bittersweet, as the new trees will go on properties abandoned after the ’22 flood.
“These are vacant lots in our downtown area next to the river that were in the flood zone and so we have – you could look at it as an opportunity to do something with that space. It has to be developed as green space.”
She said some of their grant funds will go to planning where to plant the trees and how to link the greenspaces, but there’ll be enough to plant more than 100 and maintain them.
“We would mainly work with local species, but then also, you have to think – this is in a flood zone. So that doesn’t mean there’s going to be standing water all the time, but there’s a possibility – knocking on wood for your listeners there – that we would ever any type of flood similar to that.”
Thomas said they’re considering planting some fruit trees for a community orchard.
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