Building projects for a better outdoors

To find Tree Trust at work in your community, just step out of the house. Take a walk in the park to see a crew of eight youth constructing a much-needed staircase. Visit your local library to see one of our job trainees stocking shelves. Take a ride in Minneapolis to see a crew building a house for a low-income family.

Tree Trust’s employment training programs blend lives and landscapes together, and the concoction we create benefits the entire community in so many ways.

Young people overcome obstacles in their lives, experience success and develop pride in their abilities. Local businesses, nonprofits and community-serving agencies get to draw from an experienced workforce of young people who already know the basics, from the importance of getting to work on time to the value of a strong work ethic. And our parks and recreation areas get a facelift with real environmental benefits.

On a basic level, Tree Trust’s projects help control erosion. Rather than idealizing a pristine, preserved natural setting untouched by intrusive foot steps, one should be realistic. “You have to assume people are going to walk through green spaces,” said Matt Roegge, a site supervisor for our Young Adult Conservation Corps. “It is not uncommon to find desirable native plant species… in a park, or in a green space and want to keep people from trampling over such plants.”

To that end, our job trainees create and maintain trails that steer park visitors around valuable plants. They also build staircases that prevent people from traipsing down and rapidly eroding hillsides.

Humans aren’t the only erosion culprits that need reining in. Water, whether it’s flooding, flowing or trickling, is a mightily destructive force. It’s also what comes out of our faucets and flows into our lakes and rivers. So, we need to protect natural areas from damage by water, and we need to protect our water system from pollution.

To that end, our job trainees build sea walls along lakes and ponds and retaining walls around storm drains and waterways that control erosion problems and create, according to Matt, “a physical barrier to prevent sediments, fertilizers or organic matter from hitting the watershed.”

Not only do projects like these help minimize our negative impact, but they also make it easier and safer for us to enjoy the outdoors. Trails guide us through the woods so we don’t get lost. Taking a staircase is safer than tumbling down a hillside. Bridges and boardwalks take us from point A to point B without our getting wet.

The next time you visit a local park, take a moment to appreciate the projects that are making the outdoors a better place to be. With our job training programs putting youth and young adults to work for over 30 years, chances are good you’ll be appreciating the hard work of a Tree Truster.