Tree Planting Phase 2
Yesterday, 75 volunteers came together to help plant 73 trees in the Walnut Neighborhood’s ongoing effort to beautify and provide a strong tree canopy throughout the entire neighborhood. What a great picture of “Better Together” as the City of Waterloo Forestry Department gave their time and expertise to teach the group how to successfully plant and care for a young tree.
A huge thank you to Kamyar Enshayan who brought his UNI Capstone class to volunteer. Dave Stoen also brought 20 high school students for the morning from the East High School JROTC program. Green Iowa AmeriCorps and CEEE staff and students helped, as did the Waterloo Schools Project Search participants. Church partners, neighbors, and Habitat for Humanity staff and homeowners took to their shovels to dig holes and plant some of the 7 varieties of flowering crabapple and shade trees purchased from Meyer’s Nursery through the Northeast Iowa Community Foundation’s Uplift Grant awarded to Link CCD for this effort.
Before digging holes and planting trees, both the morning and afternoon volunteers were able to walk through the neighborhood and see several projects happening. A team of Habitat volunteers were painting a house for a homeowner in the neighborhood that was partnering with Habitat for a critical home repair. Around the corner from that home, volunteers got to hear Val from Hawkeye Community College's We Build Waterloo program. Val's team was building a home in the neighborhood, and Val took time out to tell the volunteers about the We Build Waterloo Building Trades Pre-Apprenticeship Program. It was incredible to see 20 East High JROTC students learn about this opportunity to apply and learn construction trades and career paths through hands-on training. Turning another corner, volunteers listened to Dave, the leader of the Cedar Falls CAPS program as his students worked on a new home construction. Volunteers also got to see last year's trees that were planted, and they learned a little about JSA's historic preservation in the neighborhood, the new grocery store that is being constructed, and about the Walnut Neighborhood Association's efforts to keep neighbors connected. All of this helped frame the Phase 2 Tree Planting as an effort that is part of a bigger story being written, and it lifted up the value of collaboration and partnership. It was so inspiring to recognize that the work these volunteers were about to do was part of a bigger vision that was being worked out through their time, their heart, their hands, their contribution.
Seeing the Phase 2 trees in addition to last year's Phase 1 trees has been so exciting. Though the trees are still young and small, there is already a new aesthetic to the neighborhood that is pleasing and inviting when walking or driving down the streets where trees have been planted. Trees offer a variety of benefits that will positively impact the neighborhood: they capture CO2 and create clean air, they intercept storm water, conserve electricity, increase property values, bring shade, and save money for a community. They also beautify an area and create an environment of welcome and invitation. This is important as we work toward holistic neighborhood development. There have been 168 new trees planted in the Walnut Neighborhood over the past two years that are growing and increasingly impacting the neighborhood in these money saving and environmentally friendly ways.
Key takeaways from this tree planting phase 2 effort? Collaboration is critically important to community wellbeing, and when a vision is clear and a project is planned well, there are people who want to share their gifts of time and talent to accomplish that project and realize that shared vision. There is so much hope and momentum built when people work together for community betterment. Living things, people and trees, are really such wonderful assets to a community!