Victory! The City of Baltimore has Stopped Cutting Trees for the Grand Prix Race!

When Baltimore resident David Troy realized his city was chopping down trees to improve the view of a grand prix race, he sprang into action – with huge results. In just under a week, more than 4,500 Change.org members signed his petition and stopped the city of Baltimore from chopping down as many as 100 healthy, mature trees.

With local media extensively covering the issue, cutting down Baltimore's trees became a local controversy. David appeared on several nightly news broadcasts and The Baltimore Sun continuously covered developments in the story.

As David wrote in his guest blog post, he felt compelled to act for several reasons.

"I’m just a regular guy – a software entrepreneur with a pretty good Twitter and Facebook network, and I thought I could help. I care about trees. My wife’s father was an arborist. He would have wanted us to take up this cause, and it’s the right thing to do."

Now, the city of Baltimore promises they are finished chopping down trees and they have released the once-secret agreement documents with race officials.

Thanks to this campaign, more than 100 trees slated for the chopping block are still standing in downtown Baltimore, and city officials will need to think twice before creating secret agreements like this one.

The community is continuing their work to keep Baltimore's trees safe and City Hall transparent and accountable. Sign this petition and tell Baltimore to guarantee funding the Grand Prix "tree plan."

You can continue to follow efforts to monitor the city of Baltimore and the Grand Prix race by following Treesb4Prix on Facebook and Twitter.

PHOTO: David Troy

Follow Change.org's action hub for environmental and energy justice on Facebook and Twitter.