CINCINNATI — Once a year, Cincinnati sets a day aside for planting trees. Let’s Grow Local Day is an annual day of service that sends volunteers into the neighborhoods where tree canopy is thinnest, planting saplings along streets that need shade the most. This year’s edition fell on Tuesday, October 27 — and it was big enough to close down the business that started it.
The day dates to 2019. According to MadTree Brewing, the Cincinnati brewery that founded Let’s Grow Local, almost 1,000 trees have been planted through the day itself across six neighborhoods — Clifton, the West End, Avondale, Bond Hill, Lower Price Hill and Mt. Auburn. This year, the planting came to Madisonville, on the city’s east side.
MadTree does not run the day alone. Cincinnati Parks says Let’s Grow Local is led by MadTree alongside the Cincinnati Parks Foundation, Cincinnati Parks and Groundwork Ohio River Valley — fellow members of 1% for the Planet — with volunteers, neighbors and partner organizations joining the planting crews.
For Tuesday’s edition, MadTree closed its doors so its entire team could do the planting in Madisonville, where tree canopy covers less than 40% of the neighborhood, according to the company. NewsForce247 learned of it the way any customer might: an email to the brewery drew an out-of-office reply from chief executive Rhiannon Hoeweler. “We’re closed today, October 27, 2026, for Let’s Grow Local Day!” the message said. “Our entire team is out planting trees in Madisonville. We’re proud to roll up our sleeves and help make Cincinnati a greener, healthier place to live, work, and thrive.”
That canopy gap is the day’s reason for being. Neighborhoods short on trees run hotter in the summer and miss out on the shade and cleaner air that mature trees provide. Cincinnati Parks describes the Let’s Grow Local effort as improving air quality, cooling neighborhoods and strengthening community pride — benefits that take years to grow, which is the point of planting them now.
The day is also part of a bigger count. MadTree says 10,172 trees have been planted or donated since 2019 across all of its tree programs. The brewery says it is Ohio’s only B Corp certified brewery, a designation for companies held to high standards of social and environmental impact, and through 1% for the Planet it donates 1% of all sales to local environmental nonprofits. Its team members are also paid for 16 volunteer hours every year.
“Thanks for helping us grow a better, greener Cincinnati!” Hoeweler’s message concluded. The saplings that went into Madisonville’s ground on Tuesday will take years to shade its streets. Let’s Grow Local Day measures its work in decades, not days — one annual planting at a time.