FANCHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HOSTS TREE PLANTING EVENT
Trees NOW Isabella and Mt. Pleasant Public Schools ( MPPS) collaborated with Releaf Michigan to plant trees at Fancher Elementary School.
The event happened onsaturday at 9 a.m. and lasted until around 12 p.m. Volunteers from all over the community were asked to help plant trees around Fancher Elementary School.
Volunteers were required to wear masks as well as asked to possibly bring shovels and wear gloves and closed-toe shoes.
Trees NOW Isabella planned this event originally for earlier in the year but it was moved to October due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Trees NOW Isabella is a non-profit organization that was formed to provide more trees for the Isabella area as they noticed the Mt. Pleasant area had 22% tree canopy and larger cities hadmuchmore coverage.
“The playground has no shade and there’s lots of places to plant trees and trees do a lot of good,” Treesnowisabella co-founder Jim Hageman said. “We’re still looking for people to join and donate to the organization.”
Experts from Releaf Michigan came to the event in order to make sure volunteers properly planted trees so that they may grow efficiently. Releafmichigan is a statewide tree planting non-profit organization that helps plant trees in communities in order to promote tree planting which can improve the air, water and soil, economic benefits and biodiversity as well as reduce energy usage.
“Releaf Michigan has been planting for 40 years,” planting coordinator Susan Rieske said. “The organization is comprised mostly of retired foresters and we’ve been learning the correct way to plant trees.”
The DTE Foundation purchased 15 trees to plant, which cost around $300 apiece, around the elementary school. Fancher Elementary School will be in charge of watering the newly planted trees for 2 years.
“About 14 teams signed up to volunteer today,” Rieske said. “It’s a great turnout and there’s great community interest in this.”
The Trees NOW Isabella organization will be planning other tree-planting events at the Commission on Aging among other spots in the community that could need more foliage at a later date.