2007 Spring RNeighborWoods Planting
Question. At what RNeighbors community event can you find the following?
- One 20-foot-high chicken
- 240 volunteers, armed with shovels and rakes
- Heaps of bright yellow t-shirts
- One loud Deuce and a half military troop vehicle filled with high school kids
- 100 unplanted trees
- 50 orange safety cones
- An Olmsted County Water Truck
Any ideas?
If you guessed the circus. You’re wrong.
If you guessed the Saturday, April 28, 2007, RNeighborWoods tree planting, you were right!
Last Saturday, over 240 Rochester volunteers of all ages planted 100 trees on Elton Hills Drive, in less than 90 minutes.
What a group it was.
Planters were greeted by RNeighbors board members and registered by City Council representative Bruce Snyder. They were given bright yellow shirts compliments of our spring sponsors. Welcomed by a 20-foot-high chicken (compliments of Snappy Stops in Rochester) and City Council President Denny Hanson, participants then crowded around Jacob Ryg, the City Forester and learned the proper way to plant a tree.
With orange safety cones lining Elton Hills Drive, this group went forward. Led by RNeighborWoods certified Citizen Foresters, certified Arborists from Maier Forest & Tree, and the City Forester, this team put in the ground Serviceberry, Tree Lilac, and Adams Crabapple trees. These trees were purchased by RPU and will not grow up into the power wires, nor are they susceptible to the current tree predators of the Emerald Ash Borer. Each tree was then watered at least once by a Olmsted County water truck.
Who came out to this planting?
Lots of families. Some from the Elton Hills neighborhood and some from other neighborhoods in Rochester. As you look through the photos in our gallery, you’ll see that we had lots of little planters participating. The first toddlers on the scene were awarded with tiny shovels, just their size.
An RNeighborWoods partner, the Olmsted County Youth Commission was out in full force with over 50 students eager and willing. Kids from Many Rivers Juvenile Treatment facility, Century High School, and John Marshall High School. Youth Commissioners who recruited others and worked at the planting include Ben Chambers, Dottie Voigt, Beth Karon, Maryanne Hauser, Ellen Ytterberg, Derek Robey, and Jay Lee.
Operation Hometown Gratitude (OHG) showed up on the scene in their usual style, driving a military troop vehicle, their Deuce-and-a half. This group of energetic high school students packs care packages for troops stationed overseas and is very active in the Rochester community doing service projects, including tree plantings.
But wait. We also had the older and wiser generation present. Members of the Vital Aging Commission were present including Ione Schloegel, and Irv Plitzuweit. There was an expert tree planter and grandfather present, who brought his five year old grandson out to plant. An 85-year old Elton Hills neighbor was one of the first on the scene that day, excited to plant trees on his street.
Thanks to these amazing volunteers, there is now 5,675 feet of open boulevard spaces now filled with live trees.
So have we made a huge dent in beefing up our Rochester urban forest?
Well, it’s a start.
Currently there are 25,000 vacant tree spaces throughout Rochester, out of a total of 52,000 spaces. We’re currently at less than half of our capacity.
There are 7,000 Ash trees on Rochester boulevards, which are susceptible to the latest pest, the Emerald Ash Borer . This beetle has killed more than 20 million ash trees in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. It is feared this bug will be attacking Minnesota trees soon. In Rochester we lost 15,378 trees to the Dutch Elm plague.
Each year (even without the EAB plague) 1,681 Rochester trees need to be taken down due to disease or risk potential, over half of these are on public property.
Do all of these facts seem depressing for the future of Rochester’s urban forest?
Don’t worry.
RNeighborWoods is making baby steps to improve the Rochester tree canopy. We believe it’s about not only planting, but also about educating.
Since 2004, RNeighborWoods has trained over 115 community members as Citizen Foresters. That doesn’t even include our inaugural class of Jr. Citizen Foresters!
In the fall of 2006, RNeighborWoods volunteers planted 238 trees and this spring volunteers planted 100 trees. We hope to have another planting fall of 2007 in a neighborhood near you! Keep checking for upcoming planting dates.
All of the RNeighborWoods partners thank you for your active participation and encourage you to actively care for our urban forest by either attending our next planting, learning more about the importance of trees, taking the next Citizen Forester class, or talking to your city and county representative to tell them that you feel trees are important to Rochester neighborhoods.
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