October's Learning with Trees

October has been a busy and successful month for the Tree Trust Learning with Trees program. Our first event at Orono Intermediate School on October 17 was in partnership with Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, Orono Intermediate, and the Beim Foundation. Students, teachers, and volunteers planted 13 trees and 14 shrubs for a Minnesota Tree Identification walk at a short nature trail near the school.
 

The area where trees were planted is called Listening Point and is managed in conjunction with the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District. There were a variety of trees and shrubs planted at Listening Point including Bur Oak, Red Twig Dogwoods, Basswood and Hackberry. Each tree received an identification plaque mounted in the ground for interpretive purposes. The program was made possible by funding from the Beim Foundation.

The second event at Prairie Seeds Academy in Brooklyn Park on October 26. The program was funded by CenterPoint Energy, which also provided volunteer and technical support.

Prairie Seeds Academy acquired a new school building and grounds about two years ago. There is a small woodlot on the school property that had potential as an outdoor learning area. Some trails had already been created through this woodlot but there was room for improvement. Ten benches were installed in a circle in the woodlot to act as an outdoor classroom. Twelve trees and 14 shrubs representing several native Minnesota tree species were planted by Prairie Seeds students and now line the trails to create a Minnesota Arboretum Walk.

Many thanks to the CenterPoint Energy, the Beim Foundation, students, teachers, and volunteers who made these events a success!

Local businesses help schools in 2010-2011

Generous grants from the Xcel Energy Foundation and Covanta Energy will allow two schools to participate in Tree Trust’s Learning with Trees program during the 2010-2011 school year.

This fall/winter Somerset Elementary School (Mendota Heights, MN) and Nellie Stone Johnson Community School (Minneapolis, MN) will work with Community Forestry Manager Karen Zumach to form green teams of teachers, parents and school administrators. Over the course of the next several months the green teams will identify ways to transform their existing grounds into living laboratories that provide hands-on learning experiences for their students, and also provide natural environmental benefits to the local community.

In the spring each school will participate in Tree Trust’s interactive Our Town Trees exhibit, where students will learn about the benefits of trees and build a conceptual framework for the students’ planting experience at all-school events that will occur near the end of the school year. During the events, Tree Trust’s trained volunteers will lead groups of students through the entire process of planting trees. The students will be assigned various roles - digger, planter, mulcher, waterer - and make each green teams’ landscape plans a reality.

Teachers from each school will also be provided with a “tree trunk” of lesson plans and tools to use with students to incorporate environmental education both inside the classroom and in their new outdoor learning area.

Thanks to our sponsors – Xcel Energy Foundation and Covanta Energy- for helping us bring Learning with Trees to two new schools!

Learning with Trees

Last Friday, more than 620 students helped to plant 25 trees and shrubs, plant 100 bulbs and beautify the gardens at Meadowbrook Elementary through the Learning with Trees program. CenterPoint Energy funded this planting and its employees took an active role helping Meadowbrook Elementary students improve their natural environment.

“We are proud of our long standing partnership with Tree Trust,” said Doug Peterson, director of marketing for CenterPoint Energy and Tree Trust board member. “We are pleased that Meadowbrook Elementary has a new and beautiful outdoor landscape for students and teachers to enjoy while improving our communities’ natural environment.”

Joelle, a member of the Green Team at Meadowbrook Elementary wrote:
“Tree Trust is such an impressive machine with this program -- what an opportunity to have every single kid in the school having a part in planting a tree.

I heard lots of wonderful comments from students (e.g. the 2nd grader who promised he'd take good care of "Hacky" -- what they named the hackberry tree they planted, the 3rd grader who talked about bringing his parents back to see his tree, etc.), the parents who couldn't believe all wonderful varieties that we planted today. We all learned lots from the knowledgeable Tree Trust staff and volunteers!"

 Thank you to the CenterPoint Energy and Tree Trust volunteers who helped make this happen!

Learning with Trees: Local businesses support environmental education

With the continued support of East Central Energy and CenterPoint Energy, and a new grant from Cargill Inc., Tree Trust has been able to bring our Learning with Trees program to three Minnesota schools during the 2009-2010 school year.

During the month of April, students in each of these schools will participate in the interactive Our Town Trees exhibit, an environmental learning opportunity that includes five modules such as "Trees Are Cool" and "Trees Clean Our Water," that teach the benefits of trees to build a conceptual framework for the students' hands-on planting experience that will occur later in the school year.

Green teams made up of teachers, principals, maintenance workers and parents from each school have been hard at work with our school coordinators to develop a new landscape plan for their schools' grounds. The goal for each school's green team:  to transform their playgrounds into living laboratories that provide continued opportunities for outdoor learning.