MIDDLETOWN, Md (WDVM) — A town in Frederick County, Maryland is looking to increase its tree canopy and they’re proposing a new goal to help do it by 2025.
The Middletown Sustainability Committee is proposing to set a goal to reach 25% tree canopy coverage in the next six years to meet the national average.
Officials say a May 2017 Tree Canopy Report issued for Frederick County found the town had about an 18% tree canopy.
In comparison, Frederick County reported 43-percent coverage and the City of Brunswick stood at 38%.
An increase, committee members say, could improve air quality, and reduce run-off.
The committee has already planted new trees in a town parking lot and has plans to plant more thanks to a grant from the Maryland Urban and Community Forestry Committee, under the state Department of Natural Resources.
“We just got a thousand dollar grant to plant some tree along Middletown Parkway in an area that’s this wide-open area. It’ll be 30 trees, probably Pin Oaks and Sweetgum and Red Maples, so that will be helpful going forward,” explained co-chair of the Middletown Sustainability Committee, Cindy Unangst.
The sustainability committee also proposed a goal of a 40% tree canopy by 2040.