GREENFIELD — A $95,240 grant will support the addition of 40 new trees on Federal Street as part of the “Greening Federal Street” project.
“Greening Federal Street” is a collaborative effort between the city of Greenfield and the Greenfield Tree Committee. Funding was received through an Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Cooling Corridors grant.
The purpose of the project is to “transform a section of Federal Street from a treeless, harsh environment to a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly walking route by planting trees,” according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office.
Forty new trees will be planted on Federal Street in the area between Stanley Street and East Cleveland Street. The project will also involve restoring two areas where tree belts (planting strips) have been paved over.
“The city’s partnership with the Greenfield Tree Committee has once again yielded a great result for our community,” Mayor Ginny Desorgher said in a statement. “This time, we’ve brought in nearly $100,000 worth in new trees and streetscape improvements to Federal Street, a critical route that desperately needs more shade.”
Greenfield was one of eight municipalities to receive funding through the latest round of Cooling Corridors awards, which distributed nearly $632,000 in all. Outgoing president of the Greenfield Tree Committee, Mary Chicoine, applied for the grant.
According to John Bottomley, one of the co-presidents of the Greenfield Tree Committee, Federal Street has been a focal point for the committee for a long time.
“That’s one of the areas we targeted first years ago, because there’s so much impervious surface; so much pavement and buildings,” Bottomley said. “We decided to get some trees in there when we got our first grant eight or nine years ago. That area had lost so many tall trees and there weren’t many left.”
The specific area of Federal Street the Greenfield Tree Committee is focusing on was chosen in part because it is a “heat island.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, structures such as buildings, roads and other infrastructure absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than natural landscapes such as forests and bodies of water. Therefore, urban areas, where these structures are highly concentrated and greenery is limited, often have higher temperatures relative to outlying areas. These pockets of heat are referred to as “heat islands.”
“One of our main goals is identifying potential ‘heat islands,’ where there’s no shade and the temperature can increase several degrees,” Bottomley said.
According to the Greenfield Tree Committee, the project area registers as a moderate to severe heat island.
While Federal Street is a focus area for the committee, it is not an easy street to plant trees due to telephone wires and impervious surfaces.
To work around the wires, Margo Jones, the other co-president of the Greenfield Tree Committee, explained “there’s shade trees and then there’s shorter-stature trees to plant under the telephone wires.” Of the 40 trees to be planted, 28 of the trees will be short trees under wires, while 12 trees will be shade trees.
Bottomley and Jones acknowledge that despite the challenges, the street is worth investing in due to heavy pedestrian traffic.
“It’s a challenging spot for trees to survive,” Bottomley said, “but so many people walk on Federal Street.”
Jones said the new trees will provide shade that can “cool the pavement underneath by roughly 7 degrees” while also “providing visual relief from wires and pavement.”
While the Greenfield Tree Committee does plenty of volunteer plantings, this particular grant will be used to contract a company to professionally plant the trees. According to the committee, plantings are scheduled to take place between April and May of 2026. The trees will continue to be watered and maintained by the contractor until the end of 2027.
Jones wants the community to know that the committee is dependent on grants, volunteers and donations. She encourages people to get involved to help them continue their work around Greenfield.
“The GTC is dependent on grants and public support. We are making new efforts to find new sources of funding and to ask the community to contribute to our work. We are all volunteers, we aren’t getting paid, but we need money to purchase saplings,” Jones said. “We have an amazing track record with [grants], but now that public funding is being reduced, we need to reach a little further out to the public.”
According to the Mayor’s Office, a project kick-off event will be organized with a presentation about the Federal Street project, the benefits of planting trees, the types of trees being planted and why they were chosen for the project.
Anyone who is interested in volunteering with or donating to the Greenfield Tree Committee can find more information at greenfieldtreecommittee.org/about.