Edmond Life and Leisure - September 26, 2024

Residents offered free trees

Edmond Electric and Edmond Urban Forestry are teaming up with The Arbor Day Foundation to offer the annual Energy-Saving Trees Program. This program offers free trees along with an easy-to-use online mapping tool to take the guesswork out of tree planting. By entering simple information about your home and yard, the tool calculates where to strategically plant trees for the greatest energy and money-saving benefits. To date, Edmond Electric and Edmond Urban Forestry have given out 2,890 free trees to residents which the Arbor Day Foundation estimates result in a 3.7 million kWh reduction.

There will be 245 3 to 5-gallon trees available to Edmond residents. Residents will be able to reserve a free tree beginning Sept. 30 by visiting www.arborday.org/edmondelectric.

Trees will be available for pickup at Bickham-Rudkin Park located at 33rd Street and Rankin Street from 2 to 6

p.m. on Oct. 3-4. The pickup event will be set up so residents can stay in their vehicles and staff will load their tree. Residents picking up a tree are encouraged to bring a large trash bag to protect their cars from soil. These trees will be 3 to 5-gallon trees, so a small SUV or truck is recommended for pickup.

If you are not able to pick up your tree, you may send someone on your behalf. They will need to have the name the tree was reserved under and the confirmation email/number. Trees are limited to one per address/household.

Available species will be Black Gum, Silverwood Sycamore, Bur Oak, White Oak, Black Pearl Redbud and Ann Magnolia.

For additional information or help with website difficulties, please call 1855-234-3801. You can learn more about this program and check if you qualify, here: Energy Saving Trees | Edmond, OK - Official Website (edmondok.gov).