Neighborhood Climate Action: Frogtown Green

Climate change affects everyone, but some neighborhoods—particularly in areas where residents have lower incomes—feel the heat more keenly. Put simply, poorer neighborhoods are measurably hotter, because they have fewer shade trees.

Frogtown Green began in 2009 as an outgrowth of a neighborhood campaign for a new city park in Frogtown. Ohmans—along with her husband Tony Schmitz and longtime neighbors Seitu Jones and Soyini Guyton—championed the creation of Frogtown Park and Farm, a 13-acre park with an embedded 5-acre organic farm.  They argued that a new park would provide vital greenspace—known to help improve physical and mental health—in a part of the city where greenspace is hard to come by. In 2009, nearby Battle Creek neighborhood in Saint Paul had 300 times more green space per child than Frogtown. With the help of many supporters and the Trust for Public Land, Frogtown Park & Farm became a new city park in 2012.

After the success of that campaign, Frogtown Green spun off to concentrate on larger environmental issues in the neighborhood. Today, Frogtown Green seasonal staff and volunteers plant trees, run summer science and nature education workshops, support pollinator-friendly habitat and manage community gardens that offer residents a chance to grow their own food and learn about sustainability principles.

Frogtown’s name refers to the time when it was open land and marshy habitat with lots of frogs. In seasonal workshops for kids at neighborhood schools and rec centers, Frogtown Green’s FrogLab staff remind participants of that history. Workshop leaders pose questions like: Why were there frogs? And why did they go away? Kids learn that the marshes were turned into dumps as Saint Paul grew through the 1900s. When the dumps were paved over, the frogs disappeared completely. Exploring Frogtown’s quirky name leads to realizations about the neighborhood’s environmental history.

Trees are relatively inexpensive but providing the right conditions for them to thrive takes some effort. After learning about a technique called gravel bed planting, Frogtown Green volunteers built several gravel bed tree nurseries to nurture young saplings until they reached a more resilient age.

“We give trees away,” Ohmans says. The program, called Free Trees for Frogtown, gives away an average of 50 new trees a year and up to 75 trees some years. Since its inception, about 500 trees have been planted in Frogtown yards; 450 have survived and are still growing. Last year, a full-time AmeriCorps member was assigned to Frogtown Green to help with tree planting.

The Free Trees for Frogtown program focuses on climate-resilient varieties: apple, maple, linden, hackberry, planetree, lilac, ironwood, and Kentucky coffee tree. It also offers pear, cherry, and a hardy northern variety of peach. Due to climate change, Minnesota’s growing zone has shifted from mostly zones 3 and 4 in 1980 to mostly zones 4 and 5 today (a longer growing season and hotter days), with a zone 3 area in the far northern part of the state. The change in climate growing zone has made Frogtown more hospitable for some fruit trees.

Frogtown Green’s work is especially important because climate change disproportionately affects communities of color and poor neighborhoods. Frogtown’s median income for a family of four is less than $35,000 a year. Asthma rates are higher among kids in Frogtown; COPD and other respiratory illnesses are higher among adults there. Planting trees and adding green space can reduce rates of respiratory illness by reducing air pollution.

With regard to the importance of climate change in her neighborhood, Ohmans says, “It took us a long time to figure out and for the realities of climate change to kick in. It was a low priority for people. It’s invisible and abstract. It’s so huge you can’t see it; its effects are slow and incremental. Why not work on poverty instead?”

Frogtown Green’s impact is quantifiable in terms of acres of parkland added, trees planted, pounds of food harvested, and more. It’s clear that the organization is improving the lives of Frogtown residents—and possibly beyond. “I like to believe that Frogtowners are happier and healthier because of what we do,” Ohmans says. “When you start at the neighborhood level, you can do a little something about global climate change. And every little something adds up.”