COLUMBUS, Ohio — Clintonville resident and environment enthusiast, Laura Sanders has been planting trees for years, and has planted several trees in her neighborhood. 

“I have always loved trees, but besides that, they just have so many amazing benefits,” said Laura Sanders. 

When she heard the news that Green Columbus wouldn’t be able to plant as many trees this year because of federal budget cuts, she was devastated. 

“It’s just really too bad. I mean, we need every little bit that we can. It all counts and adds up to having a greener and cooler and more pleasant environment,” said Sanders.  

Green Columbus is a nonprofit organization that focuses on sustainability and tree canopy coverage. Because of a grant that was frozen from the U.S. Forest Service, Green Columbus lost a $75,000 reimbursement from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for planting hundreds of trees at different Columbus city schools. 

“There are 500 new trees at Franklin ten and whole top Columbus City schools, which is awesome, but we have not been reimbursed for that project yet. And we have a contract signed by the state of Ohio. So, you know, you would expect that you would be. So, we went into Earth Day this year kind of in a panic,” said Shelly Douglas, executive director of Green Columbus. 

Luckily, Columbus City Council stepped up and provided $40,000 to Green Columbus to help fill some of the gap of the frozen grant. 

“City council is going to help us fund over 13,000 trees for community work site projects, and we’re going to grow 3000 trees and our Linden Tree nursery and give them all away for free this fall,” said Douglas.  

For community members Laura Sanders and Pamela McCarthy, they are proud of their city and hope community members and leaders can come together for the greater good of the environment. 

“It’s just hard to even name all the benefits that trees give. I mean, oxygen. Yeah, you can’t beat it. So for a city, I think it’s greatly important with all the concrete that we have it really cool things down,” said Sanders. 

“My neighbor plants trees and she goes all over the city of Columbus and plants trees with the kids and things like that. And those are things that can go by the wayside. And why? Because we’re not going to have any people to reach out to help us,” said McCarthy.