PHOTO /INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY

For Immediate Release: Thursday, November 1, 2007
For More Information: Joy Testa Cinquino, marketing & pr manager, 838-1249 ext. 17, 716-308-2361 (cell)

OLMSTED FALL COMMUNITY TREE PLANTINGS

$50,000 from M & T Bank and many community volunteers aid in reforestation efforts in Buffalo's Olmsted Parks

WHAT: Community Tree Plantings

WHERE: Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, (Best Street to Fillmore Ave., turn on Fillmore into the Park)

WHEN: Saturday, November 3, 2007; 9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Community volunteers will gather this Saturday in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park and other Olmsted Parks to plant 200 trees. Sponsored by M & T Bank, the fall season plantings are part of the on-going effort to reforest the parks, a result of the October 2006, Surprise Storm.

Throughout Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, 37 types of trees will be planted including: Sugar Maples, Red Maples, Swamp White Oaks, River Birch, Red Oaks and Bur Oaks. The 4 - 5 year old trees are eight feet tall and weigh approximately 25 lbs. each. They will replace trees lost or severely damaged in last year's storm. Almost ninety percent of the more than 11,000 trees in Buffalo's Olmsted Parks were affected by the storm. A year later, work is still being done to restore these community parks.

Over the next two weekends, 200 total trees will go into the ground using the bare root method of planting. Community volunteers of all ages and backgrounds will assist in Cazenovia, Delaware, Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside and South Parks. This past April, more than 500 volunteers planted nearly 450 trees in the Olmsted System.

M & T Bank, a leading supporter of tree planting and education efforts and sponsor of the 2006 Olmsted Park Tree Inventory, provided $50,000 toward the Olmsted ReLeaf Tree Planting and Volunteer Training Programs.

Additional Olmsted Park tree plantings will be taking place today (Saturday, Nov. 3) in Cazenovia and South Parks and on Saturday, Nov. 10 in Delaware and Riverside Parks.

Entercom Radio is media sponsor of the Community Tree Plantings.