Rainy Saturday Tree Planting

16 years ago

Well ya can't keep good volunteers down!

We had more than 130 volunteers plus about 20 organizers turn out to plant 128 trees along a 3/4 mile stretch of highway entering Morris yesterday. Hasn't rained on the 1st weekend in May here for the past 12 years, but it downpoured on us all morning, not to mention the 20+ mph winds. But from my spot at the check-in site (still on crutches) I saw more good humor than bad, more smiles than frowns, and a GREAT bunch of people willing to 'dig' in together to make Morris a better place. The trees are big (6'-8') so the people will get gratification from their efforts even this year.

Check out the link. Kudos to the volunteers! (and to my sister the tree lady that coordinated the whole huge project - the first of 4 phases. 200 trees next spring, we hope the volunteers will have forgotten the horrible weather by then!)

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree planting in the mud

Comments (8)

sheepco
Original Author
16 years ago
Here's a link to a few more photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tree planting photos
comettose
16 years ago
Way to go! It is always great to plant trees!
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jeanner
16 years ago
Thats a great community project, I'm amazed you got that many volunteers even in good weather!

How's that ankle doing?
youreit
16 years ago
God love you guys! With so many volunteering, it's amazing how quickly you can get the work done, too. Less than one tree per person! What kind of trees were they?

I recall what you said about how you hurt your tendon - doing normal stuff. If this is "normal", I want to be Abbey Normal! LOL

Brenda
sheepco
Original Author
16 years ago
jeanner, for a town with a population of 5,700 the volunteer count was amazing! We have UMM here, a branch of the University of MN (UMM was voted one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the US!), and a great community of civic minded folks. MN DOT provided a grant for the trees based on how many volunteers we could round up to plant them, so the call went out and we were AMAZED by the response. More than 190 people came forward, 4-H, garden clubs, FFA, boy and girl scouts, etc.

Unfortunatly, MN Dot has some pretty different ideas - each hole had to be 60" (that's right 60"!) wide and 15" deep, no sod back in the holes, 1/2 compost, 1/2 dirt, then mulch (which we aborted due to the rain - might have to go back and add more dirt if they sunk - we'll mulch them later this week). It rained so hard the holes were filling with water, NO FUN digging when the slop sticks to every shoveful! So they were real troopers!

Brenda, burr oak, Triumph elm (a new disease resistant kind), Siouxland poplar, seedless honey locust, silver maple, hackberry, Austrian pine, and Japanese tree lilac. (whew)!

Tonight as I drove home from work after a 9 hour day, there was my sister and her SO and 4 others, planting the remaining trees and cleaning up piles of sod etc, my heart went out to her - wish I could help more! They put out another call for volunteers that couldn't help Saturday to help finish. And we had gusts of wind at 50 mph+ on Sunday so they need to stake a bunch of them...

(Thanks for your questions about my health, I'll answer on 'the good, the bad, and the ugly thread' - it's been a two week nightmare)
comettose
16 years ago
60" holes! Was anybody from MN DOT standing in the rain measuring? Ha! They needed to loan out a couple of small backhoes too. 60 inch hole indeed - what a way to not get volunteers next year! I bet a few folks felt like pushing a few MN DOT folks into those holes. MN DOT is smart enough not to ask them to dig them six feet deep I'll wager.
sheepco
Original Author
16 years ago
LOL CT. EXACLTY!! Actually there was one MN DOT landscape architect there who proved to be both stupid and b@tchy (not my words). Apparently had no idea what the real world required, and got fairly nastly with the volunteers. DUH!??! The LIFE BLOOD of the project? DON'T critisize the volunteers!!!! But she left about 2 hours into it.

Tonight (Tuesday) as I left town at 5:15pm, I drove by my sister and her SO still out there on their 2nd day, with about 4 more volunteers, still mulching and planting. She believes in trees so much it doesn't matter that her own business suffers for 2 weeks. Tomorrow they will have more helpers.

And I think next spring they will find the money to mechanically dig at least some depth of the 60" holes!
youreit
16 years ago
Your sister sounds like another awesome person in your family, Sarah! I bet the MN DOT idiot didn't have a nice childhood. LOL

Next year, please remind us here on the board about the upcoming tree planting so we can pitch in monetarily, if needed. Personally, I think it would be a good cause for a bunch of hard-working volunteers!

Brenda