A grant of $100,000 and a donation of the same amount from
ITC Holdings, a Novi company, are helping Oakland County green things up a bit.
Some 850 trees are being planted in 20 locations around Oakland County, part of a greening of the county master plan, says Bret Rasegan, supervisor, Oakland County Planning and Development.
"It's a way to support our green infrastructure vision," Rasegan says. A countywide inventory of greenspaces has been completed and used for a map that shows how a system could be interconnected, he says.
The grant, part of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, comes through the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and will pay for the planting of trees along the Rouge Watershed in the cities of Novi, West Bloomfield and Farmington Hills.
ITC, or International Transmission Company, is the largest independently-owned electricity transmission company in the nation, and it decided to give a boost to the grant by pitching in a $100,000 contribution.
Because of the donation from ITC, the county can plant more than double the number of trees it had hoped to with the grant, Rasegan says.
The trees will be planted in parks, along roadways and roundabouts, at a dog park, golf course and municipal complexes.
Source: Bret Rasegan, supervisor, Oakland County Planning & Development
Writer: Kim North Shine
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