Impressions of 2011 - Community Forestry

It seems as though each passing year welcomes a new threat to our urban forest. Emerald ash borer, Dutch elm disease, burr oak blight, thousand cankers, oak wilt, poor planting practices, other invasive pests, drought, and violent weather all seem to be conspiring against the beautiful trees that make the Twin Cities one of the most livable communities in the country. While many thousands of trees are lost each year to pests, disease, weather and just plain old age, our Community Forestry programming has been working hard to reverse the damage.

2011 started with celebration as one of our most dedicated volunteers, Giampaolo Malin, received a “Be the Change” award from HandsOn Twin Cities for his amazing efforts volunteering for Tree Trust. A dedicated Tree Trust Tree Trainer, Giampaolo rarely misses an opportunity to educate tree planting volunteers on proper planting techniques at our community plantings.

Spring arrived just in time for a beautiful Arbor Day planting along Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis. Approximately 100 volunteers got dirty planting nearly 1,000 shrubs and 50 trees on a lovely May morning. With assistance from Tree Trust’s Landscape Services and Young Adult Conservation Crews, the volunteers had enough shovels, wheel barrows and mulch to get the job done. 

 

Learning with Trees at Nellie Stone Johnson

As I increased in size (I was five months pregnant at the start of planting season), so did my staff. Diana Preisen, a former Young Adult Conservation Corps supervisor, made the leap to forestry; and Emily Hanson, a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota, came in as a summer intern. The newly expanded forestry staff was kept busy with Learning with Trees plantings at Somerset Elementary School in West St. Paul, Hilltop Primary School in Minnetrista, and Nellie Stone Johnson Community School in North Minneapolis.  Through this program, over 1,000 students participated in the planting of trees on their school grounds. If you ever have an opportunity to volunteer for our school plantings, I highly recommend it…it will brighten your day.

The ReForest St. Louis Park program brought 40 new trees to Dakota Park in St. Louis Park. Volunteers showed up bright and early eager to work. Their efforts transformed this neighborhood park in just a few short hours. It’s amazing what many hands can accomplish.

Spring with Tree Trust’s Community Forestry also brings a deluge of phone calls from eager Minneapolis and St. Louis Park residents. Tree Trust again facilitated both cities’ annual tree distributions, making 1,750 trees available to residents to plant on their properties. There’s just something about seeing a Mini Cooper drive away with a six foot tree sticking out the back that fills my heart with hope for our urban forest. Multiply that by 1,750 and you have to believe things are looking up…unless, of course, there’s a tornado. 

North Minneapolis distribution

The devastating tornado that ripped through north Minneapolis on May 22nd, ironically during the second day of the Minneapolis tree distribution, took down thousands of trees. Fortunately through fundraising efforts, Tree Trust was able to provide 207, free and low cost trees to residents who lost trees during the storm. This horribly unfortunate event led to an opportunity for Community Forestry to reach out to citizens and fulfill Tree Trust’s mission to transform lives and landscapes. We are lucky to be able to offer this opportunity again in 2012 to residents affected by the storm.

During my maternity leave, fall community plantings continued with Diana and Emily running the show. This fall included two Green Futures plantings, one in Bloomington and another in Sunfish Lake. Because of these two plantings, and the donations that made them possible, 80 more trees were added to the urban forest and approximately fifty people learned how to properly plant trees. While we may never win the war against the multitude of threats to our urban forest, the 2,200 trees we helped to get in the ground this year sure feels like we may have won at least a battle. Trees are good. Plant on.

-Karen Zumach, Community Forestry Manager