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"Grow Auburn's Trees" makes progress
by Walt Aikman
In one week, volunteers from the tree planting partnership called Grow
Auburn's Trees planted sixty-three bare-root street and park trees in
Auburn. The fun began when families and friends joined forces on
Saturday, November 3rd, and planted 35 trees in two and a half hours.
After gathering for lunch at downtown's famous pizzeria, Daddabbo's,
they made plans for planting 28 more over the coming week.
The highlight of the week was planting trees with kids from Casey Park
Elementary School. Cub scouts from Pack 43 met up with kindergarteners
from Casey Park Elementary School's After-school Program to replace a
pear on Pulaski Street. Once the kids' learned how to plant a tree,
they formed four teams and planted four Sugar maple trees in Casey Park.
They had a lot of fun carrying their ten-feet-tall trees and their tools
to the planting spots, digging, and finally planting their trees.
"Ten feet tall?" you ask. Yes! Kids can carry a ten-feet-tall tree.
In fact, it is easy because the trees are planted using bare-root
technology. With this approach, trees are harvested after the first
hard fall frost and dipped in an inert polymer that, when mixed with
water, creates a hydrating jelly to keep a tree's tiny root hairs moist
and healthy. With all the soil gently shaken from the tree's roots it
weighs only about 25 pounds, and that is plenty light enough for any
adult or group of Casey Park kids to handle.
Grow Auburn's Trees is a community forestry partnership sponsored by the City of Auburn. The life blood of the project is a working partnership
between spirited volunteers and responsive, dedicated city employees who
are devoted to fostering the long-term commitment to caring for trees in
Auburn. A big part of this work involves coordinating volunteer time
with available public resources to make sure that beautiful, low and
slow growing trees are planted under utility lines, and that our parks
and boulevards have a healthy and diverse tree population for
generations to come.
If you want to help Grow Auburn's Trees, please
email Walt Aikman at jetndoc@localnet.com.
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