Joppa Facilitates Tree Planting in Cheatom Park Neighborhood

Two hundred new trees were planted in the Cheatom Park Neighborhood on June 30, thanks to dedicated partners and volunteers.

Shane McQuillan, Urban Forestry Project Manager for the City of Des Moines, worked with Urban Ambassadors, a nonprofit focused on sustainability, to organize the tree planting.

Through its Tiny Trees Neighborhood Initiative, Urban Ambassadors determines the ideal location for new trees, oversees planting, and continues to provide maintenance and watering to ensure the trees thrive.

Joppa was influential in helping the Cheatom Park Neighborhood be selected as a recipient of the tree planting. The organization has a special connection to the neighborhood as the site of the first Joppa Cottage Home—a permanent, affordable housing solution for seniors, veterans, disabled individuals and others on fixed incomes, including those who are formerly homeless.

Joppa helped distribute fliers about the tree planting and collaborated on the project with Cheatom Park Neighborhood leadership, the City of Des Moines and Urban Ambassadors.

The neighborhood was approved for the project, and small trees were brought in from Pleasant Hill. Youth and leaders from Ankeny Christian Church assisted in planting the trees as part of their week-long mission trip.

The new trees will benefit residents by providing more tree canopy, reducing urban heat in the summer, improving air quality and more.

In 2020, Joppa developed the Shared Roots Community Garden in the Cheatom Park Neighborhood to provide free, fresh produce as well as a central meeting spot for residents. Built on a vacant lot previously deemed unbuildable, the garden offers 75 garden beds.

“We’re all about building a community and growing the neighborhood, and that’s what the Shared Roots Community Garden does,” said Curt Carlson, Housing Program Manager at Joppa. “Plus, it has amazing views of the city.”

That view got even better earlier this week, when Wright Outdoor Solutions removed a row of “scrub trees”—non-native, invasive plants—that lined the garden fence and served as a visible border just north of 1-235. Without those trees, the garden provides an unobscured viewpoint of the downtown Des Moines skyline.

The garden is the site of community events and “Garden Thyme” each Tuesday night, where resident gardeners can get tips from volunteer master gardeners.

Joppa has plans to build additional Cottage Homes in the neighborhood and continue to enhance the community garden, including planting a row of bushes along the fence where the scrub trees stood.

For more information about the Shared Roots Community Garden or Joppa housing development, contact Carlson at curt.carlson@joppa.org.