Installation & Description
One year later, most of our trees are thriving. We planted around three dozen trees as part of the WCCD habitat grant and around 90% survived their first year. Students have been remarkably careful around the trees planted near play areas and on the playground; we think the tree tubes help prevent collisions by making the trees more visible. Some trees are already outgrowing their tubes. Some trees have survived but needed help. This Sycamore put on height during its first year, but upon inspection at the end of the year, we saw it had taken on a V-shape, with two trunks. For its long-term health we pruned one of them. Hopefully the tree can survive this shock.
Challenges
The school leadership changed during the first year of this project. Luckily, the grant implementation team was parent-led so was able to persist and onboard the new administration, who have been supportive of the project. As some community members have been unable to keep contributing to the project, others have joined up and stepped in.
The trees are still too young to provide fruit or shade, but they’re already teaching us. We worried when needles on the Eastern White Pines along Miller Rd turned yellow last October. After some reading we learned that White Pines keep needles for only two years.
So if the needles turning yellow and dropping are only inside of the canopy or on the middle of the branches, it's likely typical, healthy behavior. And indeed, all of the yellow needles were on the main trunks!
Benefits of SCHG
One unforeseen benefit to the grant: the team that grew around the project has kept sowing native plants in the year since the grant trees were planted. We’ve traded plants with each other, planted new native trees at the school like the hoptree and ninebark, and we replaced the dead grant trees with hickory and chinkapin oak.
The WCCD habitat grant put us on a path toward a more verdant and educational outdoor space. It will be many years before these trees have their full impact on humans and other creatures, but after a good first year they are now more likely to survive all the perils they may face.