GREENFIELD — After a year of planning, Mayor Ginny Desorgher will join community members and the environmental nonprofit Greening Greenfield on Saturday to start planting trees along the perimeter of the former Wedgewood Gardens mobile home park on Colrain Street.

Greening Greenfield member Nancy Hazard teamed up with landscape designer Peter Wackernagel to plan for the planting of roughly 700 native trees and shrubs along the front slope of the lot, called Millers Meadow. The project, which aims to attract pollinators, would later include the addition of walkways.

Greening Greenfield, in collaboration with the city’s Planning Department, received $37,830 in Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) funding last summer to begin planting trees. The first in a series of planting days will be held Saturday, May 3, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by subsequent efforts on May 10 and May 17. In the event of rain, each volunteer work day would be moved to Sunday (May 4, 11 and 18).

“There will be a little forest on the northern and southern end, and then a lot of that kind of central area between them, along Colrain Street, is going to be a lot skinnier just based on the position of the sewer line that runs halfway up that hill,” Wackernagel said. “The plantings are going to be in between the sewer line and the road, and then down on the hill of the slope and on the adjacent floodplain. … We’re going to be putting in a meadow all the way down and that’ll be about 40 feet wide.”

Following the first phase of tree planting in May, Wackernagel said a second wave of plantings will take place in August or September.

Hazard explained the goal of the Millers Meadows project was to transform the area — located in an environmental justice district — into a place where residents can enjoy nature while also restoring local wildlife to the ecosystem. The shade canopy created by the miniature forest, Hazard added, is expected to mitigate flooding and climate change-related heat in the area.

“The park is in an environmental justice area of the city, so [this project will offer] more opportunities for people, particularly lower-income people who live in that area, a place where they can go and get cool in the summertime, a place where they can connect with nature,” Hazard said. “We’ve lost [nearly] 3 billion birds in the last 50 years, and we need to think about that. ... It will increase the natural habitat in a way that will make visiting the place much more enjoyable.”

Tools and refreshments will be provided, though attendees are encouraged to bring gloves. Volunteers can email p.wackernagel@gmail.com to sign up to attend a tree planting or just show up.

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.