Baltimore County is expanding a planting initiative that places trees in highly-populated, low-income neighborhoods, County Executive Johnny Olszewski announced Thursday.
The next phase of “Operation ReTree Baltimore County,” a program initially launched in November 2021, will plant more than 450 trees at single family and apartment homes in Dundalk, Essex, Owings Mills and Randallstown.
“Trees have an amazing impact,” Olszewski said to an audience of community members and county officials outside of Northwest Crossing Apartments in Randallstown.
“They raise our property values, improve our quality of life, correlate with positive health benefits, and they reduce air pollution,” he said.
The expansion will start with 45 trees planted at Northwest Crossing, Olszewski said.
The tree program will also plant 130 at Morningside Apartments and Townhomes, 123 in Eastfield-Stanbrook, 77 in Stansbury Park, 42 in Fox Ridge Manor, and 37 in West Inverness.
The county also plans to plant an additional 1,000 urban trees in the year ahead, Olszewski said, more than the county has planted in the last eight years.
Olszewski also announced a native tree giveaway on April 29 and 30 in honor of Arbor Day. Residents can preorder up to three trees, from among seven native species, and pick them up at pre-scheduled times at the Center for Maryland Agriculture and Farm Park.
