City of Dunedin Selected for Tree Planting by the National Football LeagueSaturday, January 17, 2009 at Weaver Park, Dunedin, FloridaDUNEDIN - The City of Dunedin has been selected by the National Football League to plant 86 trees to help offset the carbon footprint of Super Bowl XLII in Tampa on Feb. 1 2009. The Tree Planting will take place on Saturday, January 17 (Florida Arbor Day) at 10 a.m. in Weaver Park, the City’s newest park located along the Pinellas Trail on Bayshore Boulevard. Through the NFL’s partnership with the State of Florida’s Division of Forestry, a $4000 matching grant has been dedicated to the City of Dunedin to plant the 86 trees. The City’s grant match will be coordinating the volunteer labor to plant the trees, purchasing 43 of the trees, mulching and the setting up of a drip irrigation system. The goal of this acclaimed program is to help offset the greenhouse gases produced by the Super Bowl game and the week-long events associated with the game. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy have calculated that over 500 tons of green house gases are produced by the event. Through an arrangement with the US Forest Service, the State of Florida Division of Forestry and the owners of individual planting sites, a long term monitoring program will be put in place to track the actual environmental impact of the trees over time. These figures will be made available on an annual basis and will include all Super Bowl tree projects done since the beginning of this initiative five years ago. This tree planting is part of the overall “greening” of the Super Bowl done by the NFL in partnership with the Tampa Bay Super Bowl Host Committee with funding provided by the US Forest Service, Home Depot, and the State of Florida Division of Forestry. There will also be an archaeological dig and display by the Florida Public Archaeology Network and the Gulf Coast Archeological Society. The Weaver Park property was known to be a part of the Dunedin Mound. The dig will search areas on the property that need to be preserved because of past Native American activity.
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