BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 5, 2020 – For the fourth consecutive year, the Walton Family Foundation is supporting efforts to bring new trees and shrubs to Northwest Arkansas. The grants, at the recommendation of Steuart Walton, will help increase and diversify the region’s tree canopy and complement its widely used outdoor offerings.
This year, the foundation will provide more than $900,000 in grants to help plant 930 trees and shrubs in Benton County. With the funding, nine municipalities and the Bentonville Park Conservancy will add large and small trees near trails, highways, parks, schools, playgrounds and other public spaces. The plantings, which include more than 30 species, will help enhance livability, economic activity and outdoor recreation opportunities. As the trees mature, communities will gain additional benefits including better air quality, increased shade, cleaner water, improved wildlife habitat and new local produce options. To ensure continued growth, funding will also support year-round supplemental watering and mulching.
In the coming weeks, communities will host giveaways for residents to receive 2,250 smaller trees in 3- to 5-gallon pots. Socially distanced giveaways will be held between mid-October and early November in Avoca, Bella Vista, Bentonville, Centerton, Decatur, Gentry, Gravette, Pea Ridge, Rogers and Siloam Springs. Each organization will release details on their respective events.
To date, the foundation has provided funding for more than 10,000 new trees in Benton County. The plantings have helped boost interest in urban forestry, increase engagement in outdoor beautification efforts and improve shade along the region’s trails and the Razorback Regional Greenway.
About the Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses, work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. In 2019, the foundation awarded more than $525 million in grants in support of these initiatives. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.