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Growing Roots in Miami Gardens
Along Snake Creek Trail, new trees are helping grow a cooler, healthier, and more connected Miami Gardens community.
October 6, 2026
Miami Gardens is home to Ramon Odio and his family. It’s where he and his wife bought their first home, where their children have grown up, and where they’ve built a life together.
For more than 13 years, Snake Creek Trail has been woven into that life. It’s where Ramon runs and cycles, clears his mind after a busy week, and spends time with his children.
“On the weekends, I spend time with the kids here — having conversations and catching up on what’s going on in school,” he said. “I think that's something they could look back on when they're older and remember, ‘Hey, I walked with dad on a trail. I saw this bird, I saw this butterfly.’ It's good memories.”
Now, a new chapter is taking root along the trail.
As part of Miami-Dade County's Million Trees Miami initiative, the Arbor Day Foundation recently partnered with local leaders to plant approximately 200 trees along Snake Creek Trail, helping create a cooler, healthier, and more welcoming space for the community.
“It’s a serene, calming environment,” Ramon said. “It’s a place where I come to destress and take a load off. You become one with nature.”
The new trees are already helping strengthen the trail's ecosystem, bringing back pollinators like bees and butterflies that support neighborhood gardens and fruit trees.
“A lot of us have coconut trees, mangoes, and our own gardens,” he said. “Bringing back the pollinators helps increase our crops, in a sense.”
Just as importantly, the trail has become a place where neighbors connect.
“A lot of the residents in the community are elderly now. Their family members have moved away, and they're alone,” he said. “This has become a meeting place where you can greet them, say hi, check on them, see how they're doing. It helps bring a little more cohesiveness to the community.”
In a city where summer heat often keeps people indoors, the growing tree canopy is making that connection easier by creating cooler, more comfortable places to gather.
“With the trees that create the shade and the shrubbery, it helps cool down the weather and creates a shaded area,” he said. “It's phenomenal.”
For Ramon, planting trees has always been about more than shade. When his son was born, he planted a coconut tree. When his daughter was born, he planted a cashew tree. Each one marks a milestone in his family's story and serves as a reminder that the things we nurture today can benefit future generations.
“It’s like a connection to where we’re at,” he said. “If you take care of it, it blossoms and produces fruit for the future.”
