Seedlings planted on Belle Isle to offset Super Bowl carbon emissions

The National Football League planted hundreds of seedlings on Belle Isle's eastern side before the Super Bowl in order to offset the event's carbon emissions.

Excerpt:

The [carbon offset] plans seem abstract, but one of them is playing out today on the east end of Belle Isle, where many of the hundreds of seedlings encased in blue plastic cover guards appear to be struggling.

Many are still growing, but a lot have died, while weeds choke others. Many of the plastic cover guards are tipped over.

Rebecca Salminen Witt, president of the Greening of Detroit organization, a nonprofit group that worked with the NFL on the plantings, said the results are better than they look. During an August census, her group found 78% of the seedlings were still alive, which was in line with projections.

Witt said the high grass that surrounds the seedlings has been left to grow so city crews don't mow down infant trees during normal grass cutting.

"They're doing exactly what they were planned to do," Witt says. "What's happening is supposed to happen. It's just going to look a little weird for a while until those trees get a little bigger."

Read the entire article here.