Private donations, volunteer efforts bring new trees to Commerce Street

Eight new trees line the sidewalks around the 100 block of North Commerce Street thanks to donations and Saturday planting efforts of local Natchezians. FOR Natchez Executive Director Chesney Doyle said the beautification of the central part of downtown is a detail outlined in the Downtown Master Plan — a recipe book for revitalizing Downtown Natchez that the city adopted last year.

Doyle said local business owner Kevin Miers spearheaded an effort to see part of that plan through by soliciting donations for operation “Clean Up Natchez” — which consisted of cleaning streets and planting new vegetation downtown.

“We did some looking around came up with the idea to plant eight new trees, because the 100 block of North Commerce Street had very few trees—only four. We asked the city to cut 8 new tree wells and told them that we’d take care of getting the trees and getting them planted.”

The Natchez Public Works department cut out the tree wells in the sidewalk while approximately 25 volunteers got their hands dirty. The group completed what was originally thought to be a two-day project in a single Saturday, Miers said.