Volunteer this fall!

Have you ever volunteered with Tree Trust? Would you like to? We are looking for volunteers to help plant trees as part of our annual GreenFutures plantings. The first will be on Saturday, October 6 in Eden Prairie at Forest Hills Park and the second will be in Fridley on Saturday, October 13 at the Springbrook Nature Center. 

Tree Trust staff and Tree Trainers train volunteers on-site on the proper method of planting a tree so no experience is necessary - just be willing to learn, have fun and enjoy the outdoors! Plantings are family-friendly, so feel free to bring your kids  as long as they are well-supervised. Check out the volunteer page of our website to learn more and sign up!

Are you interested in becoming a Tree Trainer? Tree Trainers learn how to lead other volunteers and students in planting trees properly at Green Futures and Learning with Trees plantings. Tree Trainers have to attend a training and volunteer at two events per year. We just happen to have a Tree Trainer Training this Saturday, September 29 with a few openings left. Sign up here!

Green Futures gives volunteers a chance to actively participate in improving our local environment. In addition, individuals can support the program through contributions to the Green Futures Fund. Nearly $50,000 has been donated to Green Futures since 2008 and each dollar donated by individuals is matched by a local family foundation.

Each $150 in the fund plants another tree for a total of over 720 trees planted in the Twin Cities to date! Trees planted through Green Futures are six- to ten-feet tall well-established trees which have a much greater chance of survival than seedlings.

Please consider joining us for an event this fall. Volunteering with Tree Trust is a great, hands-on way to give back to the community!

Prepare Your Trees for Winter

Wondering how to care for your trees once the cold weather sets in? Get started this weekend with a few tips from Tree Trust's Community Forestry Manager, Karen Zumach.  

Water, water, water! We’re in a drought and large trees need our assistance. Don’t forget your boulevard trees, they need water too! Over the next few weeks, placing your hose on a slow trickle around the dripline of your tree for 30-60 minutes will go a long way to helping your tree survive the drought. Increasing the soil moisture is the name of the game, keep your hose on a low flow to decrease the possibility of run off.

Rake. If you have spots on your leaves from fungus or other nefarious leaf issues, it’s important to rake them up and get them out. Fungus and bacteria can survive in the soil through the winter and reinfect your tree/shrub in the spring. 

Protect. Most ornamentals are quite delicious to our furry friends, so be sure to create some sort of exclusion area, either with chicken wire or plastic tubing around the trunk (be careful if you’re using chicken wire, you don’t want to knick the bark!). If you have thin-skinned, young trees like maple or basswood, wrap them before the snow flies to protect the tree from sun scald.

Plant. Fall is a great time to plant for two reasons: the weather is perfect and you can’t beat the sales at the garden centers. Stay local if you can. You don’t want to buy a tree from a big box store because chances are good that it’s spent a large portion of its life living somewhere much warmer than here meaning it won’t be acclimated to our chilly winters. Make sure you plant your tree the right way!

The cool autumn weather is a great time to do yard work. Take advantage of the great weather and care for your trees before the snow flies!

 

Jason Mraz and Tree Trust

Jason Mraz has a show at the Target Center in Minneapolis this Sunday, September 16. Mraz is a great supporter of environmental causes and he plans to plant trees with Tree Trust on Sunday morning. This effort is the result of a partnership between Mraz, Tree Trust, Reverb, and KS95.

Some lucky fans will have a chance to join Mraz and Tree Trust in the planting event and win free tickets to the concert through a contest on KS95. Contest winners were selected yesterday.

The Tree is A Four Letter Word campaign launched as part of the 2012 Jason Mraz North American tour. It supports local environmental organizations and aims to engage and inspire fans to take action.

Tree Trust will also be at the concert on Sunday with an informational table in the "eco-village." We will be selling stickers, the proceeds of which will benefit our programs! Feel free to stop by prior to the concert for information about our programs and to purchase a sticker.

End of Summer at Tree Trust

Though the summer isn't technically over yet, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of the season for most Minnesotans. At Tree Trust, our summer season ends in August with the completion of the Summer Youth Employment Program, the summer cohort of the Young Adult Conservation Corps, and the YouthBuild advanced crew. All of the youth employment training programs work with youth in the summer months, and some work with youth year-round.

Summer is a busy time of year for our youth programs. Youth who are not in school for the summer have more time on their hands and greater need of guidance and positive activities than they do during the school year. Every summer for the past 36 years, Tree Trust has been here to provide youth with work experience, educational enrichment, and a paycheck for their summer work experience. 

So while most Minnesotans have been out enjoying the summer, Tree Trust staff have been here helping our participants find positive direction. Now that summer is closing and many of our youth participants have returned to school, we take a little time to catch our breath before we hit the ground running with fall forestry events, new crews of YouthBuild and Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) youth, and just generally preparing for the upcoming 2013 year.

By October, we’ll have nearly 50 youth participating with YouthBuild and YACC crews and Community Forestry has a busy autumn with Green Futures and Learning with Trees plantings. Thanks to all who have provided funding for Green Futures plantings this year – and especially to our anonymous donor who matches all of these contributions. 

Public plantings will be held in parks in Eden Prairie and Fridley in early October. Learning with Trees projects at schools in Orono and Brooklyn Park are being funded by CenterPoint Energy and Beim Foundation. We will also work with Wells Fargo and their volunteer team and a generous anonymous donor to plant more trees in selected parts of tornado-damaged North Minneapolis.

Tree Trust had a busy summer working with over 600 youth, and the break between seasons is short as we shift gears and move into our fall projects starting... now.