Revitalizing Anoka County’s Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park

On Saturday, September 25, Tree Trust gave 20 community volunteers the tools and training they needed to plant 30 trees in Anoka County’s Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park.

Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park is one of Anoka County’s most popular parks, offering year-round recreation activities. Like others throughout Minnesota, this 446-acre park has lost a number of trees over the years to Dutch elm disease.

Thanks to a $5,000 grant from Connexus Energy that was awarded to Tree Trust’s Community Forestry program, the community planting event on September 25 helped replace lost trees and revitalize the park. Trees planted in Anoka County’s Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park included hackberry, bur oak, American basswood, Kentucky coffee and autumn blaze maple.

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!