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CHARLOTTE -- More than 600 residents are taking their fight to keep the tree canopy in Charlotte abundant and healthy all the way to city council.

A report by American Forests says the Queen City has lost nearly half of its tree canopy in the past 20 years.

"The problem is the trees are dying,” said Dilworth resident Debra Glennon. “They're being taken down and removed due to old age, disease, much faster then we're replanting them.”

Glennon and hundreds of her neighbors participated in an online petition asking city leaders to consider $500,000 in the 2011 budget to help restore the number of trees in the city.

But Charlotte City Council member Nancy Carter says money doesn't grow on trees, and $500,000 may be a bit much when the city is facing millions of dollars in cuts.

"I don't see where the money is coming from,” she said. “We have to be responsible to our first priorities, our police, fire, solid waste."

Carter, a self-proclaimed environmentalist and vice chair of the Environment Committee, says she would love to support the tree initiative, but doesn't see how it's possible right now.

"We don't have the money,” she said. “If they could suggest something to cut out of the budget, then we could debate it"

Carter says 20 percent of the tree canopy is in the city's right of way, so there is a slight budget for trees.

The group will present the petition to city council March 22.