by Greg Cznadel

     (Plain Press January 2026) Cleveland Parks and Greenspace Coalition held its 2025 Park Advocate Night December 2^nd at the ThirdSpace Action Lab, 1464 E. 105^th Street.  Tait Ferguson (Trust of Public Land), Erika Hood (Syatt), and India Hobbs led the group in an eventful night with twelve Cleveland neighborhoods and over 14 community led park and greenspace groups represented.

     Bingo cards with action squares were passed out. Each square had an action item: Planted a tree, led a cleanup, bought or leased land, had been to a Park Advocate Night, used a fire hydrant to water plants. You had to circulate finding people who had met one of those requirements. Five in a row and you got a second chance lottery ticket. Greenspace Action Kits were given to the winners.

     After this wonderful network breaker every group was then given a large post it to create a front-page headline and article shouting out their achievements for 2025. Their imaginations went wild. “Brooklyn Center Olympics,” “2025 Peter Rabbit Project”, “EXtra EXtra Read all about it! Coit Park Cleanup!” Hopefully, some to appear in local papers, like perhaps “Old Brooklyn Branches Out.”

     The “Slavic Village Gardeners Take Over Fleet Avenue” headline boasted how The Slavic Village Gardeners take an hour every week during the summer and go into a flowerbed along Fleet Ave. and weed it.

     Friends of Cudell Park prevented the murder of over 80 trees, had the second annual dog costume contest (King Regis won), and had the first ever Crush event where they crushed live Lantern Flies to live local music.

     The artist attendees showed up. Brooklyn Center Olympics front page had flowers, trash bags, stacked boxes and a Lego hill with Lego cars. Old Brooklyn’s tree with branches and roots (idea by Tree Steward Josh Maxwell), told of their 2025 achievements. Each group presented their “Headline” with a story. Erich Hooper, founder of Hooper Farm in the Tremont neighborhood, from memory, recited part of a poem he had written for their group.

     For 2026, “Old Brooklyn Branches Out” will be different from things they did in this previous year.

     As trees in most of the parks are now three years old and maintenance, pruning, and mulching will still be needed, watering, a major task throughout the summer, will not be consistent. And as many residents, mostly spread out, have already obtained a tree from our “Free Residential Tree” program, it was decided to branch off in a different direction.

     Hope Fierro, head Tree Steward Coordinator, interviewed the stewards one on one to get input on where we have been and where we should go. It was decided to form action teams. A team to spearhead communications, a Facebook Page: taking pictures at different events. To inventory and map the trees in each park, clean and maintain tools. Our main focus will still be on planting trees. increasing our canopy coverage.

     Being difficult to spread the word across all the homes in Old Brooklyn, it was decided to pick one street, Witchita. On that street, tree stewards plan to go door to door selling our wares: who we are, why we need to increase our canopy coverage, and then ask if residents would like a tree.

     The “trunk” of the project will be to help in the purchase and planting of 54 trees on Broadview Road next year. In the past we did not plant on city tree lawns (could with city permission) but focused on private properties because there was a huge gap to be filled. But as Cleveland, led by Phil Kidd, is working on a de-paving project along City streets (remove the concrete near the curbs of the street), it was agreed to have the Stewards help plant trees in the new tree lawns along either side of the road, then water and maintain them. Phil Kidd works for the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects managing the Complete & Green Streets program.

     Also, with the help of Steward and Master Gardener Barbara Caldwell, planters will be installed throughout the tree lawn with native plants. As long as While stewards are watering the trees, they might as well pull the weeds. Instructional tree talks and walks will still be a part of our program.