The City of Irving’s Tree Farm at Mountain Creek Preserve has 41 more trees now, thanks to the generosity of United Parcel Service (UPS) and the UPS Foundation.  Earlier this year, Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) applied for and received a $5,000 community planting grant funded by the UPS Foundation through a partnership with Keep America Beautiful.  This was used to purchase native tree varieties from the Texas Trees Foundation. On Saturday, November 8, seven volunteers, who gave twenty-two hours of service, along with Parks Department and KIB staff, planted those trees at the tree farm. They will remain at the farm for several years, and later be used to replace trees as they are needed in the city’s parks.

The UPS Foundation, founded in 1951, is the philanthropic arm of UPS.  Since launching their Global Forestry Initiative in 2011, they have planted more than 3 million trees across 47 countries to support environmental sustainability.  KIB’s grant was one of 30 awarded to Keep America Beautiful affiliates in 2014, with the goal of planting, protecting and preserving trees in urban and rural areas.  Irving city councilman Allan Meagher, who is a UPS employee, was the liaison between KIB and UPS for this project.

KIB Board member Karen Harmon, who also serves on the city’s Tree Board, remarked on the project by saying, “Since becoming a Tree City USA city, Irving has increased its emphasis on planting and preserving its native trees.  This project is a great example of that, as well as one of partnership.  Today’s event was made possible by KIB partnering with the UPS Foundation, Keep America Beautiful, the Texas Trees Foundation, the Parks Department, and North Lake College students, who all came here for the purpose of helping ensure that our tree population will be replenished in the future.”

Keep Irving Beautiful is a non-profit, grassroots, leadership organization dedicated to educating our community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification in order to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of our city. As an award winning affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, Keep Irving Beautiful reaches out to and partners with all sectors of our city including government, business, church, cultural, educational, neighborhood and civic organizations.  If you are interested in volunteering with KIB, please go to www.keepirvingbeautiful.org, or call the KIB office at 972-721-2175.