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| BeltLine Entities |
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Planning, implementing and building the BeltLine |
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Reaching out to our community to raise awareness and funds |
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Implementation
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| Implementation | Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum
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Arboretum (noun, plural is –retums or –reta): a place where trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants are cultivated for scientific tand educational purposes. A living “Tree Museum” where tree specimens or collections are arranged according to some definite method – it may be by systematic or commercial uses, or perhaps to show ecological adaptations.
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Vision
The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum will be a twenty-two mile long arboretum, unusual in its linear expanse, neighborhood connectivity, and relationship to the proposed BeltLine. The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum will be a success when everyone in Atlanta can identify their neighborhood by the trees that surround them, and therefore understand the value of trees in an urban environment. The BeltLine Arboretum will be built over the next two decades (The exact number of trees planted will depend on space available, but the conceptual plan proposes several thousand trees.)
Goals
- Establish and implement the systematic planting and care of arboretum collections (using the “right tree, right place” guideline) based on the idea of “Natural Neighborhoods.”
- Provide educational programming to all neighborhoods and constituents (residents and visitors) – teaching, “Trees are for health, trees are for community, trees are for life” and providing a continuous twenty two mile indoor/outdoor classroom.
- Promote the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum as more than a “tree museum” – it is a corridor of scientific research and education.
- Enhance neighborhoods and community parks and open space, improving access, quality of life and the image of the City.
Background
For more than twenty years Trees Atlanta, a non-profit citizen’s group dedicated to protecting and improving our urban environment by planting and conserving trees, has worked to protect and expand Atlanta’s urban forest. Spearheaded by Trees Atlanta, the Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum will:
- preserve and expand the City’s urban forest while increasing canopy cover and shade;
- provide opportunities for educational programming;
- create an attraction of city-, region- and nation-wide interest;
- improve neighborhood identity; and
- enhance the function, connectivity, and appeal of BeltLine light rail and trail facilities.
The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum visionary qualities, making it unique among the nation’s urban green spaces, include its:
- diversity and extent of planting and greening opportunities,
- variety of trails, transit links and crossings,
- looped linkage of multiple inner city neighborhoods, and
- potential for generating initiatives – ecological, environmental, scientific, educational and economic – within and beyond the twenty-two mile long BeltLine Corridor.
Opportunity
Residents and developers have the opportunity to be connected to the BeltLine today by planting particular trees that define and support the arboretum's individual collections, which are called Natural Neighborhoods. The landscape of homes, parks, and developments may also include plants, art, and environmental demonstration to further strengthen the BeltLine Arboretum's development.
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Benefits
- Visual unity and connectivity (sense of place) for the entire Atlanta BeltLine
- Unique attraction for Atlanta residents and visitors to enjoy
- Cleaner air and better water quality for all Atlantans
- Removal of up to 13-pounds of carbon dioxide from the air per tree
- Added shade for bicyclists, pedestrians, commuters and others
- Bird and wildlife corridor – a place to attract, view and provide habitat for wildlife
- Educational opportunities for people young and old
- Stewardship and conservation of soil, water and biological resources
- Improved richness of biological and ecological diversity
- Additional greenspace for the City of Atlanta
- Demonstrations of environmentally responsible design
- Additional buy-in for property owners adjacent to the Atlanta BeltLine/more reason to get involved and support the entire Atlanta BeltLine project
- Likely creating the”longest linear arboretum” in the country
- Restoration of degraded landscapes
- Attract interest in the Atlanta BeltLine among not yet engaged citizens and partners
- Increased enthusiasm among citizens about the creation of the Atlanta BeltLine
- Fosters volunteer involvement and maintenance funding for Atlanta BeltLine as a whole
 
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Trees Atlanta is a nationally recognized citizens group dedicated to protecting and improving Atlanta’s urban environment by planting, conserving and educating. Since 1985, Trees Atlanta has planted and distributed more than 72,000 trees with the help of 3,500 volunteers.Trees Atlanta worked with The Portico Group (Seattle, WA) and Atlanta BeltLine stakeholders to create a world class conceptual plan for The Atlanta BeltLine Arboretum.
Additional details are available at www.treesatlanta.org and by contacting Greg Levine, 404-681-4903. |
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