This WV Project CommuniTree planting
took place on a beautiful Arbor Day in spring 2014. This was
Shepherd's 4th Annual Tree Planting, and it has grown in
size every year. We hope to continue the tradition and have
it grow even bigger every year!
The 24 trees were placed along the
natural forest border at the back of the field, where we
have been promised that there will be no new construction.
The players on the soccer field, and the people in the
crowd, have an excellent view of the trees we planted!
The Grounds Crew of Shepherd dug the
holes for us in advance with an auger and the organizers
showed up an hour in advance to set up the table and food,
and decide how we were going to plant the trees. We were
able to plant the CommuniTree kit of 24 trees, along with
the 10 Larches that Dr. Plautz purchased, in 2 hours. We had
a group of 29 volunteers sign in, as well as a few others
who attended but did not sign in. With such a large amount
of people, it took no time at all to place the trees, plant
them, mulch them, water them, and pack up.
There were people of all ages and all
majors. There were science professors as well as some young
people who had no ties to the University but just enjoyed
planting trees. It was very nice to go around in a circle
and tell who you are and why you came to the event. There
were even a few children there who learned something about
the benefit of trees, and how to plant them. We had 5
professors show up to help. Dunkin Donuts donated 3 boxes of
donuts for the volunteers and Food Lion donated organic
apples.
Our WV Project CommuniTree Liaison,
Tanner Haid, gave a great educational tutorial about how
deep to plant the trees and the precautions we should take.
He also showed us the 3-3-3 rule for mulching the trees. We
used the displays from Shepherd Environmental Organization's
(SEO) Earth Day table about the tree planting. These
displays were Truffula tree cutouts (from the popular Dr.
Seuss book The Lorax) with interesting facts about the
importance of trees.
A word from Project Leader, SEO
President Mary Kinnie:
“I think the volunteers benefitted, and
everyone learned something. Even the professors learned
more about trees and how to plant them. We are all pleased
that we would love to be back next fall to do it again! The
great part about planting these trees is that the science
department will get to use them for educational purposes for
years in the future, so the education doesn't stop after the
trees are planted. Each of us learned techniques that we
can use in our own backyards, too.”
