{"id":242381,"date":"2026-04-22T21:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242381\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:30:13","slug":"city-of-st-pete-works-to-replenish-tree-canopy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/242381\/","title":{"rendered":"City of St. Pete works to replenish tree canopy"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The City of St. Pete is working to restore its tree canopy.<\/p>\n

Local leaders say many of the trees were destroyed during Hurricanes Helene and Milton.<\/p>\n

WATCH: City of St. Pete works to replenish tree canopy<\/p>\n

City of St. Pete works to replenish tree canopy<\/p>\n

“It’s just not a lot of trees like it used to be,” said Worthy McGuire, who lives in Childs Park.<\/p>\n

McGuire has lived in Childs Park in St. Petersburg for 20 years and said many of the trees in his neighborhood came down during Hurricanes Helene and Milton.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I’m sitting here, there used to be a tree there that provided me a lot of shade, and that tree came down,” said McGuire.<\/p>\n

He said the community has been more focused on recovery over the last two years.<\/p>\n

“People came, and they hauled a lot of debris, and so forth\u2026and I don\u2019t think there were a lot of trees replanted, because we were basically focused on the clean-up process,” said McGuire.<\/p>\n

According to local leaders, the city lost 20% of its tree canopy during the storms, and now it’s a goal to restore those trees.<\/p>\n

“We are helping our community recover its natural shade\u2026we are helping combat fuel emissions,” said Corey Givens Jr., St. Pete City Councilman.<\/p>\n

The City of St. Pete will roll out new programs over the next few months to give away free trees to residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cTree giveaways, neighborhood mini-grants, we have resident-focused initiatives to really try to restore our natural tree canopy,” said Givens Jr.<\/p>\n

McGuire said new trees will also help mask the air pollution emitted from a nearby oil refinery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has like a foul smell\u2026it lingers on for days and weeks sometimes,” said McGuire.<\/p>\n

McGuire hopes the trees will make a difference in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that people can drive down this neighborhood, just like you drive downtown and say ‘wow this is beautiful’\u2026so I would like the same thing here,” said McGuire.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Casey

Casey Albritton is dedicated to telling your stories throughout South Pinellas County. From St. Petersburg to Largo, she\u2019s there to share the triumphs and struggles of the community she calls home. So, let Casey know about the stories that matter to you.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Owner of Storm Distillery dies from injuries in explosion, fire<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay 28 reporter Chad Mills spoke with Kara Schulte, a family friend who started the GoFundMe and described David Mohr as someone who brought people together and created a welcoming space in downtown Inverness.<\/p>\n

Owner of Storm Distillery dies from injuries in explosion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 The City of St. Pete is working to restore its tree canopy. Local leaders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[81491,944,596,107032,202,204,203,199,201,200,5910,3670,15179,42482,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-242381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-childs-park","9":"tag-hurricanes","10":"tag-pinellas-county","11":"tag-pinellas-news","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news","18":"tag-tampa-bay-28","19":"tag-tampa-bay-local-news","20":"tag-tree","21":"tag-tree-canopy","22":"tag-wfts"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}