Pensacola's Canopy Restoration Project

Enhancing Community Green Spaces

By Darien Hardy

Pensacola’s Canopy Restoration Project is a volunteer-led nonprofit that aims to help beautify the city and restore the community’s urban tree canopy through the power of native tree planting and active volunteer engagement.

The project was modeled after the Orlando Street Tree Program, which is still thriving, according to Chelsea Mahan, co-founder of the Canopy Restoration Project. Mahan and her husband, Adam Cayton, were among the first people to become involved with this project.

“We were worried about climate change and the loss of biodiversity,” Mahan said. “We were wondering about things we could do.” They read about the Climate Task Force, a recommendation in Pensacola that played a significant role in promoting the planting of more trees in the city. They learned that the best way to earn money and start this kind of project is by working with local neighborhood associations.

Mahan and the other co-founders of the project started a neighborhood association called East Pensacola Heights. From there, they learned about the Tree Trust Fund grant from the Council of Neighborhood Association Presidents of Pensacola (CNAPP). They applied for the grant and were awarded $3,575 in funds. Today, their award stands at $5,500.

Before the Canopy Restoration Project, a pilot project was conducted by the group prior to its establishment as a nonprofit organization. That project was the East Pensacola Heights Canopy Restoration Project. The first iteration of the project focused on advising and observing park trees being planted.

“We could see that when the city plants trees, they have to do a bidding process to get the labor to plant the trees, and they have to hire people to water them,” Mahan explained. “Sometimes, the watering trucks broke down, and the trees would get hit by weed whackers by the various people who were taking care of them. We learned a lot from that project.”

Soon enough, the organization was planting trees itself for the first time. In 2022, when they launched this pilot project, they planted 25 trees purchased by the City of Pensacola, as well as an additional 36 trees, which were donated by the UF/IFAS Extension in Santa Rosa County. In total, they planted more than 50 trees at the start of their ecological efforts. Eventually, more people joined the cause.

“Kelly Hagan, former president of CNAPP, was already doing a lot of environmental work in the city,” Mahan said. “Then, I met Tom Patton, who’s a retired real estate developer. Together with CNAPP, we became a nonprofit and conducted a city-wide project through various neighborhood associations that helped reach out to other neighborhoods and expand our scope.”

The Canopy Restoration Project plants trees within the right-of-way of the city’s residential spaces and 20 feet beyond it toward a house. The right-of-way is the space in front of the house that runs from sidewalk to curb and includes any grassy or landscape strip.

“There are so many reasons to plant trees,” Mahan said. “It’s well documented that stormwater mitigation is a huge issue in Pensacola, and these trees will help with that. It also improves walkability and beautification, raises property value, provides passive cooling and helps with traffic calming. Even just the mental health benefits of people and the educational aspect of people learning are impressive.”

The Canopy Restoration Project is holding an open application for a tree giveaway for both a city resident project and a county resident project. Applicants may choose up to three trees to have planted out of five longlived, storm-resistant and native tree options.

“Every tree has a participant that has volunteered to care for it, a tree steward,” Mahan said. “They sign a commitment to care and are supposed to take care of the tree for the first two years. We have a very specific watering schedule that we provide them, and we also provide them with a five-gallon bucket and a plastic protection ring.”

Funding for these projects comes from a County Tree Trust Fund and a City Tree Trust Fund.

“When the city plants trees, whether it’s in parks or anywhere in the city, they have to put out a bid for people to plant them, and then they end up paying for watering for at least a year. It ends up being thousands of dollars per tree,” Mahan said. “The trees we plant end up being, on average, $58 per tree because we’re completely relying on volunteer labor, not only to plan the project, but also to plant and maintain the trees.”

The Canopy Restoration Project will close its open application by the beginning of November and plant the trees from midDecember to February—which is the best time of the year to plant trees because it’s the cooler months of the year, outside of hurricane and drought seasons and allows the tree’s roots to do most of its growing during the dormant period of winter.

On what The Canopy Restoration Project affectionately refers to as Planting Day, a big group of volunteers will come together to plant all the trees. Some of these people have been volunteering with the organization the entire time, while others are interested members of the community or school groups. The Canopy Restoration Project partners with city experts to ensure the right trees go in the right places. Panhandle Growers, a nursery in Milton, is the main tree source for the project.

“We have a great relationship with them, and they often come out and do demonstrations for us,” Mahan said. “Part of our goal is education about the tree canopy, its importance and how we are working to revive it.”

After watching a demonstration on how to correctly plant a tree, volunteers are free to go off to their sites with their teams and plant some trees.

The Canopy Restoration Project also works closely with the Environmental Advisory Board for approval on its projects and a local arborist for mulch sales, as well as the city arborist, Chase Crawford, who helps ensure the trees are planted effectively. Additionally, CNAPP and East Hill Neighborhood Association help with outreach and project promotion.

Mahan says the sheer efficiency of this project is one of its most successful attributes. After a recent inventory of its latest projects, Mahan said that The Canopy Restoration Project has more than a 99 percent success rate, and the project is always under budget.

It feels extremely fulfilling to be doing something for the environment,” Mahan said. “We live in a coastal city, and we are concerned about climate change, sea levels rising and biodiversity extinction. So, to be doing any small thing is very fulfilling and calming for me. I also have kids, so it's nice to know that they know that I'm doing something to make the earth more resilient for their futures, too.”

For more information about The Canopy Restoration Project, and to learn more about how to get involved, visit canopyrestorationproject.com.