CSX ‘Trees for Tracks’ Comes to Tampa for Second of Two Central Florida Plantings Just One Week Apart

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Some 75 volunteers from CSX and City Year, the Alliance for Community Trees, Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful and the City of Tampa Parks & Recreation planted 56 guava, orange, jacaranda, pecan, Poinciana, cassia and plum trees from 8 a.m. – 12 noon on Saturday, November 19, 2011, along the Nuccio Parkway Greenway at North Nebraska Avenue towards East 7^th, as part of the railway’s “Trees for Tracks” program. The event was the second of two “Trees for Tracks” events in Central Florida scheduled on back-to-back weekends. On November 12, 75 volunteers planted 50 trees at Southport Community Park in Orlando, Fla. For more information on these projects, go to http://www.beyondourrails.org/calendar.

CSX Corporation, based in Jacksonville, Fla., is one of the nation’s leading transportation companies, connecting customers to ports, distribution centers and markets across the eastern United States. Through grass-roots volunteerism and focused corporate giving, CSX is committed to supporting the communities where it operates. City Year, a nonprofit AmeriCorps national service organization is dedicated to building democracy through citizen service, civic leadership and social entrepreneurship. The Alliance for Community Trees (ACT) is dedicated to improving the environment where 80% of Americans live--cities, towns and metropolitan areas. Together, local ACT member organizations have planted 15 million trees with help from 10.7 million volunteer hours nationwide.

The tree planting was part of a big environmental action weekend effort that included the Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful Hillsborough River & Waterways Cleanup on the same day. CSX, City Year and Alliance for Community Trees volunteers joined the Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful event kickoff before moving to the Nuccio Parkway service site. The tree varieties were selected for their ability to thrive and provide color and utility to the site.

CSX is proud to sponsor organizations like City Year and ACT, in their efforts to improve parks, schools, recreational centers and other public places in the many types of rural, suburban and urban communities that CSX connects and serves. In September, the railway was added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for its achievements in environmental performance, including reaching ahead of schedule the company’s voluntary goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent and its “Trees for Tracks” program to plant one tree for each of the 21,000 miles of CSX track.

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