Wyandotte County’s warmest neighborhood gets dozens of new trees to add shade
More than 60 people gathered in Kansas City, Kansas’, Shawnee Park to make a long-awaited project come to fruition.
Volunteers, neighborhood association members, area businesses, lobbyists and nonprofits joined environmental organization Bridging the Gap to plant more than 30 trees in the Armourdale neighborhood on Thursday morning.
The event began with a brief demonstration to show volunteers how to properly plant the trees, which included 13 different species. Volunteers learned the basics, like how to dig a hole, and more involved tactics, like how to properly set tree roots up for smart growth.
Bridging the Gap has conducted environmental and beautification efforts in Kansas City, Missouri, for years. It began in the 1990s with encouraging people to recycle more. Since then, its efforts have grown toward offering numerous local services, like helping people optimize their energy use and restoring natural areas.
Thursday marked the first time that the organization brought its cause to KCK.
It’s something that Jesus Valenzuela, a community forestry coordinator with Bridging the Gap and the Heartland Tree Alliance, has been waiting for ever since he joined the group. As a Wyandotte native, Valenzuela has long hoped that he’d be able to lead a planting event in his community.
And with the help of funding from the 2022 federal Inflation Reduction Act, he was able to make that happen. Through the act, the Kansas Forest Service received $300,000 to put toward beautification and planting efforts in Wyandotte County, said Blaine Stroble, a community forester with the state.
Bridging the Gap decided to start its crossover into KCK with Armourdale, given the neighborhood is considered among the warmest areas in the city and has limited canopy cover.
“Armourdale is the hottest part of the city, which surprises a lot of people,” Valenzuela said. He’s looking forward to seeing how that changes over time.
Although the Armourdale Renewal Association, the neighborhood group that serves the area, received funding to plant trees back in 2023, the project has been on hold due to construction delays, Monica Mendez, executive director of ARA, said.
“This is a great improvement for the environment, for the neighborhood itself, and I’m very happy to work with Bridging the Gap and everyone else here,” Mendez said, adding she’s grateful to everyone who came out to help.
Valenzuela hopes it’ll cement KCK as a priority spot for planting events and future funding in the long term.
The park sits adjacent to Crosslines Community Outreach, an organization that helps residents address food and housing insecurity throughout the year. Kelly Moran, director of development and communications for the organization, attended the tree planting event on Thursday morning.
Moran was excited that Bridging the Gap was trying to increase the tree canopy in Armourdale and the city’s urban core, she said. As a part of the Kansas City metro that is historically underinvested in, any resources that can be poured into it are important, Moran added.
Representatives from the office of U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids also came and addressed volunteers ahead of the event, according to attendees. Bridging the Gap will maintain the trees for the next few years and is planning to plant between 150 and 180 trees in KCK over the next two years.
