Here’s what Greenville has done so far to replace all the trees it lost in Tropical Storm Helene

The city of Greenville has planted nearly 500 trees on city property since Tropical Storm Helene roared through South Carolina in September.

City officials are awaiting a fly-over by the U.S. Department of Agriculture later this year to ascertain the extent of the damage to the overall tree canopy, but they estimate about 1% was damaged, said Loren Thomas, spokesperson for the city.

Cleveland Park suffered the most.

The city’s oldest, the park was created in 1922 when the Cleveland family donated 122 acres of land along the Reedy River. They were among the area’s earliest settlers and prodigious buyers and sellers of land.

Some 276 small trees along the Reedy River were planted in Cleveland Park since Sept. 27 when the storm hit.

The city is paying for the work with a fund created in 2021 when it passed a tree ordinance that includes fees levied against property owners who elect to cut down trees rather than replace them.

The city has collected nearly $2 million, with $1,167,338 in the fund now, according to a report given recently to the City Council by Edward Kinney, the city’s principal landscape architect.

The fee is $50 per caliper inch for any significant tree that is removed without being replanted with additional fees collected for cutting down heritage trees.

Thomas said the idea for the fund came from a number of other municipalities that have similar fees, including Atlanta.

The fund also pays for trees given to residents. About 1,400 have been handed out.

The tree fund also pays for tree-plotter software that shows aging trees and gaps in the canopy.

“We had a lot of debris that took probably three months to get out of Cleveland Park,” said Drew Smith, the city’s master arborist. “We got the trails open really quickly, but getting all that wood material out first so we could have places to plant was first.”

The City of Greenville Public Works collected 427,789 cubic yards of debris — enough to fill 171 Olympic-sized swimming pools in storm cleanup. They also removed 52 hazardous stumps.