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If you reserved a tree/trees for Plant a Tree for Tennessee. Here's some important information for the event: Choose your pickup location at checkout, a confirmation will be emailed to you. Pickup is Saturday 4/26 from 9am-12pm.   Green Interchange has partnered with the Nashville Department of Transportation, the Civic Design Center, and Walk Bike Nashville to create a green and safe space along Cannon Street for multi-modal transportation. The federal funds that were secured for this project are now in jeopardy and are expected to be rescinded.
This project is important to us because this neighborhood has been identified as having low tree canopy, meaning there is less shade. On hot summer days, the surface temperature in this area is about 10 degrees hotter than in places with abundant tree cover. Napier Elementary students, who walk and bike to school along Cannon St., regularly experience the effects of this heat. Consider giving to help us keep this project going. You donation will support this project by funding the installation of native trees and pollinator plants at each intersection along Cannon Street, ensuring the long-term care of the plants, providing supplies to Napier students for community art installations along the street, as well as materials for other community engagement and educational activities. Be a part of creating a green, beautiful and safe space for this Nashville community, consider donating today.  Plant a Tree Tennessee
Our Plant a Tree Program will occur in Tennessee on April 2025. We aim to distribute 12,000 native trees to be planted in yards to improve our environment and communities. Volunteer to Hand Out Trees By volunteering to help distribute trees, you will organize bare root trees by species and hand them out when people come to collect the trees they've ordered. This is a great community service project opportunity for churches, scout troops, other organizations, and individuals. Register to volunteer here. Volunteer to be a Tree Pickup Site Sign up to have your business serve as a pick-up location for trees. This is a great way to get new customers to your shop on a Saturday morning! Register as a pick-up location here.  We will be hosting two volunteer events at our Old Hartsville Pike project site on Monday March 17th and Wednesday March 19th from 1:30 PM - 4 PM. Green Interchange volunteers will stabilize sections of the UNT to Spring Creek using soil bioengineering methods, including coir wrapped cedar revetments and gabion baskets. The project targets erosive areas and tree threats, covering exposed areas with erosion control matting and seeding for stability. Click the links below to register. Volunteering is always free. If you choose to donate you are supporting important work like this. The event will take place rain or shine.
When: Monday March 17th and Wednesday March 19th from 1:30 PM - 4 PM Where: Volunteers will be emailed location prior to the event. Bring: Please wear weather-appropriate clothing and sturdy work boots/shoes. We advise that you bring water, gloves, and any tools you'd like to use for tree planting. We will have plenty of shovels and other necessary tools so if you don't have any, bring yourself! Please register and sign the waiver using the link below.  Friends, As the year ends, I can’t help but be thankful for all of YOUR Support! You have allowed Green Interchange to accomplish much for our economy, communities and quality of life. In 2024:
We have much to do in 2025, so your investment of $50, $100, $250 or more will go a long way to make 2025 a success! Thanks for your continued support! Happy Holidays! Sincerely, John McFadden, CEO [email protected] 615-330-5364  Our fall plant sale is here! As the weather turns a bit cooler, it's the perfect time to work in the yard and garden. We have an exciting list of native trees and shrubs for you to choose from, including our fan favorite, the Eastern Redbud. We have large trees like the Tulip Poplar and Honey Locust, as well as a variety of smaller trees and shrubs. Browse the selection and place your order today.
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MjIwNjI5 Thank you to our partners for providing space for us to host plant pick-ups! Friends of Shelby Park, Shelby Park Nature Center, St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, and the First United Methodist Church in Lebanon. Are you someone who enjoys working outside, doesn't mind getting dirty, is passionate about native plants, and is a team player? Consider joining our team! We're looking for a seasonal contractor who will lead our fieldwork initiatives, including invasive plant removal and native species installation.  Green Interchange, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plants trees and uses natural solutions to improve Tennessee’s air, land, water, and communities. Come be a member of our small but mighty and passionate team. We’re looking for a seasonal field assistant to help with various activities during our planting season, Spring and Fall. This is a great opportunity to learn more about native plants and their proper care and maintenance while expanding the green space in Tennessee. Potential for a full-time role.
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If interested, please email us at [email protected]  What’s all the hoopla about Bradford Pears?There is a lot of talk about the Bradford (Calgary) Pears these days and someone asked what all the hoopla is about. So I decided to try and answer that question, “What is all the hoopla around this tree species about?” Before I get into the “hoopla” I’d like to provide a bit of background. Being a tree lover of sorts, I often wondered why we had so many in the first place. Well, as you might imagine, the government was trying to help! First off, the French priest, Joseph Marie Calgary, sent samples of the Bradford Pear tree from Asia (China and/or Korea) to European botanists. It was then imported to the U.S. by the USDA, in search of disease-resistant fruit trees. The Bradford pear was released to the public around 1963. It’s a shame we were looking abroad when everything we needed was in our native forests! Other than the fact that I hate these trees, one of the great detractors of Bradford Pears is they overtake native habitats and beat the dickens out of our native forests. Bradford pears are invasive and provide minimal value to our communities and environment. They are thorny and as they grow they split and splinter, especially the larger ones. This is because the branches are heavy, but the tree’s thin limbs are unable to support the weight of the branches, especially if there is a snow load or little puff of wind. The other reason to eliminate Bradford Pears is they are inhibiting our native forest’s ability to grow on fields and farms. There’s a two to three-acre plot of ground across from my tree farm in Lebanon/Mount Juliet. Historically, once a landowner stopped bush-hogging the fields, around here it would have regenerated in our native Eastern Red Cedar. The Cedars would have been packed in there, but the stronger trees would have overtaken the weaker trees and the landowner would one day have had a valuable forest. Today that field is packed full of Bradford Pears, the only value there is for the dozer operator who may be lucky enough to take them down! Let’s take those Bradford Pears down, I’m all for that! Once they split, you might as well cut them down. If you do cut one down, you’d better treat the stump, or you could use the hack and squirt method used by foresters to take out trees without cutting them down. One of our reforestation/restoration projects was overtaken by Bradford Pears! I had estimated around 30% of some areas of the tree canopy were Bradford Pears. Green Interchange hired a contractor and they hacked and squirted the Bradford Pears. It was a beautiful thing! Within weeks we saw the trees begin to die back and now six months later, they’ve been eradicated and the natives we’ve been planting have been released (aka more sunlight, nutrients, and water) with much less competition. I like to refer to Bradford Pears as a “noxious tree” because what these trees are doing to our native forests makes me sick! I hope you help me rid our great state of TN of these trees and plant natives to restore our urban and rural forests. Learn more about our organization: GreenInterchange.org
About: John McFadden (PhD) is CEO of Green Interchange a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization whose mission is to plant trees and establish and sustain natural systems for healthier communities, economies, and quality of life. He can be reached at [email protected]. Reference: Calgary Pear, MO Department of Conservation.  Each year, through our Plant a Tree Program, we offer a selection of native bare-root native seedling trees for a nominal donation of $1.99. These funds allow us to continue our work, and the price point makes trees accessible to all. We’re excited to announce that the Plant a Tree Program will occur on Saturday, April 20th, 2024. This year, we’re offering the Tennessee state tree, the Tulip Poplar, and the timeless Eastern Redbud. Don’t wait; order your trees. Green Interchange is a Nashville-based non-profit organization created by Congressman Mark Green in 2020 with a mission to reforest the Tennessee highway system. According to the Global Forest Watch, between 2001 and 2022, Tennessee lost 11% of its tree coverage. Natural forestland represented the majority of this loss. Trees play an extremely important role in the natural environment and human lives. Trees absorb rainwater and help prevent flooding; their shade helps lower energy bills by keeping things cool; their photosynthetic process cleans the air, and trees create habitat for Tennessee wildlife. For these reasons, Green Interchange is dedicated to offering native trees to residents who would like more trees in their yards. We’re grateful for all the support and look forward to sending you home with a native tree to plant! Click here to order.  THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS: Tennessee Environmental Council, Root Nashville, Firestone Complete Auto Care, Trees Knoxville, AWC Family Foundation, Gallatin Public Works, and the Westminster Presbyterian Church |
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