Coastal Electric members help bring new life to storm-damaged Bryan County

After an EF4 tor­na­do destroyed hun­dreds of trees in north Bryan Coun­ty, the tree canopy is being restored, thanks to a $25,000 grant made pos­si­ble by the gen­eros­i­ty of Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers.

The pow­er­ful tor­na­do with winds of 185 miles per hour that swept through north Bryan Coun­ty on April 15 was the strongest to strike the Unit­ed States in 2022. The dead­ly twister stayed on the ground for 14 minutes—taking a life, injur­ing 12 more, and destroy­ing many homes and hun­dreds of trees. In response, the Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion launched an ambi­tious cam­paign to replace lost trees in the areas affect­ed by the storm.

In July 2022, the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Foun­da­tion donat­ed $25,000 to the Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion to pur­chase and plant new trees at Hen­drix Park, near the Bryan Coun­ty Cour­t­house, and in Ellabell’s Park Place Com­mu­ni­ty. Phase I of the restora­tion project has now been com­plet­ed.

The grant will go much fur­ther than just pro­vid­ing for the pur­chase of new trees. It also enables Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion vol­un­teers to col­lab­o­rate with local arborists and land­scape engi­neers to craft a sus­tain­able plan for the land­scape design and plant­i­ng that will prove most ben­e­fi­cial to the space and to the health of the trees far into the future.

New trees have already been plant­ed near water fea­tures at Hen­drix Park, and more will be plant­ed near the Bryan Coun­ty Cour­t­house when con­struc­tion to repair storm dam­age is com­plete. The Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion plans to facil­i­tate a tree give­away in the res­i­den­tial Park Place Com­mu­ni­ty, which was large­ly destroyed by the tor­na­do and left many slab foun­da­tions swept clean of their homes.

Fund­ing for Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Foun­da­tion grants like this one comes from Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive mem­bers who allow their elec­tric bills to be round­ed up to the next dol­lar through the Oper­a­tion Round Up pro­gram. Those nick­els and dimes are pooled togeth­er and invest­ed back into the com­mu­ni­ty through the Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive Foun­da­tion.

The Coastal Bryan Coun­ty Tree Foun­da­tion began in 2001 as a vol­un­teer out­reach of the Rich­mond Hill-Bryan Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce. Today, the foun­da­tion is an envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion non­prof­it with a focus on restor­ing canopy shade trees to the com­mu­ni­ty. Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion vol­un­teers have plant­ed and cared for more than 2,000 trees in parks, schools, and oth­er pub­lic and res­i­den­tial areas. Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion also mon­i­tors the health of the new­ly plant­ed trees.

To find out how you can help the Coastal Bryan Tree Foun­da­tion, vis­it the web­site or Face­book.