Greater Newark Conservancy and Ironbound Community Corporation representatives joined Ironbound community members, East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador, Newark Sustainability Director Stephanie Greenwood and representatives of TD Bank to plant 10 trees along St. Charles and Rome streets near the Ironbound Recreation Center. This event is part of Newark's Greenstreets program, an effort to remove concrete and plant trees throughout the Newark. The Newark Sustainability Office and its partners aim to plant over 2,000 street trees by the end of 2014 through this program. The Ironbound community is a focus of the Greenstreets program because it has the smallest percentage of green space in the city. Trees will be planted by Greater Newark Conservancy, which manages several tree farms on vacant lots as part of a multipronged commitment to environmental stewardship, education, and job training in the Newark area.

The Ironbound tree planting event and the job training program associated with Greater Newark Conservancy's tree farm are being funded through a $20,000 grant from the TD Green Streets Program, launched in 2013 by TD Bank and the Arbor Day Foundation to support urban forestry programs in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. Newark was one of only 10 communities selected to receive a grant along with Burlington, VT, Cheltenham Township, PA, Greenville, SC, Casselberry, FL, Myrtle Beach, SC, Salem, MA, Springfield, MA, West Palm Beach, FL and Wilmington, DE.

"Today's event highlights the importance of green public spaces for the health of the whole city," said Stephanie Greenwood, Newark's Sustainability Director. "When we come together to plant trees, we make an immediate improvement to quality of life in the neighborhood. But we also make a commitment to the well-being of future generations. These trees will grow with the children that use the soccer field behind them. Children in all Newark's neighborhoods deserve to grow up in a healthy, green environment."