Branch Out Milwaukee is bringing the Sherman Park neighborhood together through trees.
Milwaukee Water Commons, an environmental organization focused on the bodies of water in Milwaukee, launched Branch Out Milwaukee in 2022, as a pilot program in Sherman Park to improve the tree canopy and build community stewardship.
Through the program, Sherman Park residents can get a free tree inventory if they are interested in receiving subsidized tree maintenance or planting a new tree on their property for free.
“I think this is something that people deserve and has not been provided in the past,” said Caitlin Reinartz, Branch Out Milwaukee coordinator.
Milwaukee Water Commons received a $340,000 Sustain Our Great Lakes grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in 2022 to work with partners to plant at least 250 trees and maintain at-risk trees in Sherman Park.
So far, 87 trees have been planted in Sherman Park, with 15 more to be planted soon and others to be scheduled, according to Reinartz.
Planting trees in the orchard
Workers, community members and students planted 45 trees from the Branch Out project in the Home GR/OWN Unity Orchard, at 2518 N. 38th St., on April 26 at an Arbor Day celebration.
“We need spaces like that in our community because there’s so much going on all the time. But if you can come somewhere where you can find you some peace and just sit down and gather your thoughts, that’s priceless,” said Cheri Fuqua, founder and executive director of The Middle Ground, a nonprofit community organization.
Fuqua is the land manager for the orchard and other nearby spaces like Scholars Park, 2577 N. 38th St., that can serve as healing spaces.
She’s been working on the orchard since 2015 with the city and community partners and hosts neighborhood events and programming there.
The orchard, dotted with peaches, cherry, gala apples, elderberry and other fruit and blooming trees, is located on the boundary of Sherman Park and Metcalfe Park in Milwaukee.
“We really didn’t know how to care for them (trees), but partners started stepping in and showing us how to prune and take care of them and then we started actually flowering and harvesting,” Fuqua said.
Branching out across the city
The Milwaukee Water Commons staff hopes to get additional funding or grants to continue the program in Sherman Park and expand it to other city neighborhoods like Washington Park, Metcalfe Park and Lindsay Heights.
“We work together, we play together, we live together and in order to make our community better, we have to all come together to be able to expand the work in the urban tree canopy,” said Felice Green, director of programming at Milwaukee Water Commons.
Branch Out has also planted trees in other former vacant lots in the neighborhood and worked with partners to establish the Sherman Park Tree Board, a volunteer council of residents that builds neighborhood leadership around the urban forest.
Hank McGowan, a tree board member and owner of Green Sanity LLC, which was hired to water and maintain the Unity Orchard, said that the role of the board is “finding other places to help with the canopy in the city and then beautifying it.”
Why are trees important?
Reinartz, of Branch Out Milwaukee, said that trees do so much for people and the environment, improving water quality, air quality and public health.
“They lower heating and cooling costs by providing shade or keeping the air warmer in the winter,” Reinartz said. “They do an amazing amount of stormwater intercept, which lowers the amount of flooding that we experience.”
Communities that have healthy tree populations have lower incidences of skin cancers and lung cancers, and studies have shown that a healthier tree canopy can reduce the risk of poor birth outcomes, she added.
However, investments in maintaining urban tree canopies have often left out diverse neighborhoods like Sherman Park, according to the Branch Out master plan.
“They’ve been marginalized or last on the list, so we want to bring some of that life back to these communities, one tree at a time,” Green said.
For more information
The Branch Out Milwaukee tree planting and maintenance program is open to Sherman Park residents who own their home or are renting from a landlord who also lives in the neighborhood.
Residents interested in receiving tree maintenance or a free tree planting can contact Reinartz, of Branch Out Milwaukee, by filling out a form or calling (414) 763-6199, ext. 7.
Tree maintenance is subsidized on a sliding scale based on income and tree removal is not the focus of the project.
