New project along Dexter Street brings green to Providence's West End

This spring, a coalition of local organizations planted 13 trees and 32 decorative shrubs and grasses along Dexter Street in the West End neighborhood of Providence, between Potters Avenue and Cranston Street. In order to plant the trees and plants, a total of 425 square feet of pavement was removed.

In addition, one of the tree pits includes two curb cut, which allows runoff from the street to flow directly into the tree pit and get absorbed by a special mix of soil, rocks, plants, and trees when it rains. That means less dirty stormwater going into our storm drains and less pollution for our rivers, ponds, and Narragansett Bay. Additional curb cuts are planned for later this fall.

This project is a demonstration of Nature At Work, a new effort being led by the Rhode Island Green Infrastructure Coalition to bring more green space to our cities and use nature to clean, protect, and cool our neighborhoods. Because of climate change, we are seeing increased heat impacts in our city, especially where there are fewer trees, as well as issues with flooding and polluted runoff in our neighborhoods.

Coalition partners also hope that these trees and plants offer other benefits to neighborhood residents, such as beauty, shade, and reduced stress, especially for kids walking to and from school along Dexter Street.

This project was funded by the Rhode Island Department of Health Climate Change Program, Brown University Swearer Center, and the City of Providence Health Equity Zone initiative. Partners also included: Groundwork Rhode Island, Clean Water Action, West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, the City of Providence Department of Public Works and Department of Parks and Recreation Forestry Division, and the Steel Yard.

Groundwork Rhode Island (GWRI) will be maintaining the trees and plants over the first year after planting, and will be working with community partners to continue this maintenance over the long-term. GWRI job training participants and paid GroundCorp landscaping crew performed the installation, ongoing maintenance, and will continue additional installation this fall.

If you have any questions about the project, please contact info@groundworkri.org or (401) 305-7174.