PORTAGE, MI — The city of Portage lost about 48,000 trees in the May 7, 2024, tornado.
The city is replanting 250 of them in Celery Flats and Lexington Green Park this fall, said city spokesperson Mary Beth Block.
For a city that boasts the slogan “A Natural Place to Move,” trees were a particularly difficult loss.
“Given how long it takes trees to grow, it could be a generation before (Celery Flats) resembles anything like it did on May 6 of last year,” Portage COO Adam Herringa said previously.
City councilmembers voted Tuesday, Sept. 23, to pay Grand Rapids-based Twin Lakes Nursery $182,517 to purchase and plant 250 trees. That’s about $730 per tree, plus planting services.
Twin Lakes submitted the lowest of three bids — others rang in at $197,361 and $226,000.
Even if all 250 trees were planted in Celery Flats, that’d make up just 6% of the 3,900 trees lost there. This purchase by itself replaces about 0.5% of the Portage trees lost in the storm.
Portage has $260,000 to spend on tree planting, per city documents, thanks to a $150,000 state grant and $110,000 from the city budget.
Funding for the 250 trees will come out of this pool.
It’s spent just over $41,000 working with a forester and hosting two community planting events, per city documents.
Bicentennial Park and the DNR’s Gourdneck State Game Area were also hit in the May 7, 2024 storm.
On the anniversary of the storm, Portage received a $100,000 donation to remove dead trees and plant new ones.
The Bicentennial Park trail closed for two weeks in September while crews removed stumps and debris from the forested surroundings, Kalamazoo Gazette/MLive reported previously.
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