Last year Kelly Garces noticed that of the 24 houses on her block only two had trees in front of them.

She had recently found out about Seattle's Tree Fund - a grant program where neighborhoods could get free trees to plant in front of their houses so she decided to take action.

"I just thought it would make the street so much more lovely," said Garces.

The Tree Fund is part of the city's Neighborhood Matching Fund, a grant program that funds a variety of grassroots neighborhood projects. With the Tree Fund, the only community matching requirement is that residents plant the trees and guarantee their care for the first three years.

The benefits to the community, however, according to Neighborhood Matching Fund Project Manager Eden Trenor, extend far beyond the reach of a planted trees' branches.

"It's a great opportunity for a community to get organized for the first time," she said.

Trenor has received letter after letter from residents who never knew their neighbors until participating in the Tree Fund.

"It was kind of silly that I didn't know people who practically lived right next door," said Garces.

Garces said it didn't seem very difficult to get a Tree Fund grant approved as long as the application was complete. She added, however, that filling out the application wasn't necessarily easy.

At least five households have to be a part of the process. Applicants can choose from a total of eight trees approved by a city arborist for the project. With their application, residents have to include a neighborhood drawing to show where the trees would be planted. Applicants have to have the utilities mark power lines in the ground to make sure planting a tree in a particular spot is safe. Then each of the households involved has to sign off on the plan before it is submitted.

When Garces got started, she printed flyers with contact information cutouts at the bottom and put them on all the doors on her block. When people started to respond she organized meetings to plan the application.

"It was the first time I'd gone door-to-door since selling candy in junior high," said Garces.

When the applications for trees come in, each one is reviewed by a city arborist.

"(The city arborist) actually got out and looked around the neighborhood to see what we were asking for," said Garces. "It wasn't like, 'here's some trees, have fun.'"

Since 1972, Seattle's tree canopy has shrunk from about 40 percent in 1972 to 18 percent today. The Tree Fund is only one of the tree-planting efforts run through the city. For example, as part of the Urban Forestry Project, when crews from the Department of Transportation cut down a tree in the construction process they must plant two more.

While the Tree Fund only gets trees planted between the sidewalk and curb, Trenor hopes that residents who have a good experience learning proper planting and tree maintenance will make up for residents who have bad experiences with a poorly maintained trees that are eyesores and cause problems like broken sidewalks.

The cost of the Tree Fund is about $50,000 annually, funded through the Neighborhood Matching Fund budget. That money pays for the trees as well as the city arborist's time to view and evaluate the site of the grant proposals. In 12 years of operation the Tree Fund has planted nearly 19,000 trees with a total investment of about $700,000. That works out to a cost of about $38 per tree. Every year nurseries from Washington and northern Oregon compete in an open bid process to provide them.

Once an application is approved, at least two representatives from the neighborhood groups must attend a two-hour training session on how to properly plant and care for their trees. Trees are delivered in late October to early November. Residents have to submit pictures of the actual planting, as well as pictures after they've been in the ground.

One of the surprises for Garces was how much something simple like planting trees intrigued the whole neighborhood. The neighbors who were involved in the grant told her that the two or so hours they planned to spend planting turned with as much as five because of neighbors from blocks away wanted to know all about what they were doing.

"I think people understand that planting a tree is a universally good thing," said Garces.

Applications for the tree grants are available at neighborhood service center at 4205 S.W. Alaska St. and also at 5405 Delridge in West Seattle. The application deadline is August 15.

Alex Russell is a Seattle freelance writer and may be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com