Berkeley Springs
High School was awarded 150 riparian trees through WV
Project CommmuniTree in Spring 2013. These trees were
planted throughout the campus as well as at the County Board
office.
On April 25th
Cacapon Institute provided in-class lessons to Mr.
Chenoweth's science classes on the benefits of trees,
especially their ability to mitigate stormwater runoff
pollution.
On May 2nd,
60 students, two teachers, and two grounds maintenance
personnel volunteered to help plant the trees. The students
came from Ms. Jenkins & Mr. Chenoweth's science classes.
Each class participated for ~45 minutes each. Students were
planting from 9:00 till 2:30 with a break for lunch. Each
class was given a planting training that included the
benefits of trees and how to properly plant a tree. Great
care was taken to plant the trees with root collar showing.
Trees and tools were delivered by Cacapon Institute. CI
purchased mulch locally during lunch and in the afternoon
students mulched all of the trees. The weather was sunny and
mild. The soil was rich sandy loom and ideal with one
exception. One area, the northern most group of trees
between the ball field and Run, was old rip-rap with cobble
and bolders just below 6-12" of soil. This was difficult
digging up adequate soil was available once the stones were
removed from the planting holes.