It’s April, which means spring is in bloom: the birds are singing, the sun is shining, and there’s no better time than the present to plant a tree.
At least, that’s the case in Brookfield and Riverside, where village foresters led tree plantings in recognition of the annual holiday that celebrates the stewardship of our fibrous friends, whose leaves take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen through photosynthesis, whose roots can provide stability underground and whose trunks are great for leaning on or sitting under in shade.
Riverside’s village forester, Michael Collins, led a group of fourth- and fifth-grade students at Ames Elementary School in singing “Know Your Oaks” and learning about the importance of trees before the students helped shovel dirt onto the newly planted pecan and sweet birch trees, which were donated by the Olmsted Society.
“Part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s legacy is to bring people close to nature. He built this village and all the trees here, so it’s part of our mission to bring more trees to the landscape. Every year, we donate a tree,” said Linda LaBelle, an Olmsted Society member who attended the planting at the triangle park between Repton and Southcote roads.
The event bore resemblance to last year’s Arbor Day celebration, where the students assisted Collins and David Kusnierz, a certified arborist with SavATree, in planting a bald cypress tree. Collins said Arbor Day is “like a forester’s Christmas.”
His favorite part of the day is “connecting with the kids and trying to inspire them to follow the path of working with nature, working the land, being good stewards of the land,” he said. “Probably the [most fun] part is inspiring the children and trying to get them to be the next generation to start planting trees.”
Like last year, SavATree provided the students with seedlings they could take home and plant in their own yards to watch grow over the years.
On Thursday, in joint recognition of Arbor Day as well as Earth Day the day before, staff and volunteers at St. Mary School and St. Mary Church in Riverside led the school’s students in planting twin catalpa trees in front of the chapel. Bob Finn, the volunteer leader of the St. Paul VI Parish’s Creation Care team, led the planting.
“I was able to get a couple trees donated by the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, which is a group through Morton Arboretum that donates and plants trees throughout the Chicago area,” Finn said.
The Creation Care team has been active for around three years, Finn told the Landmark. The group undertakes other environmental efforts, like organizing Styrofoam recycling events, discouraging idling cars and spreading the word about other sustainability events, he said.
“The whole Creation Care team is driven by the ‘Laudato Si’ encyclical that Pope Francis wrote in 2015,” which is a formal letter the late Pope issued calling for people to take action against climate change and environmental degradation, Finn said.
In Brookfield, Village Forester Victor Janusz led a similar event at Ehlert Park later Friday morning, where he quoted J. Sterling Morton, the 1872 founder of Arbor Day, before leading a handful of residents in planting a New Horizon elm from Hinsdale Nurseries.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago provided swamp white oak and pin oak seedlings for attendees to take home and plant, Janusz said.
“Arbor Day is important because it helps bring recognition to making sure that we plant trees, because we’ve done such a great job taking them down,” he said.
Janusz said he enjoys the holiday as an extension of his role as an arbor expert in Brookfield.
“Being that resource for the community, that’s why I periodically do these plantings. Sometimes, I do school plantings, where I can get involved with the kids and get them to interact and asking questions, correct them lead them into the right direction,” he said. “I think that can actually spawn their interest in the whole concept other than, ‘Hey, it’s a tree I can climb.’”
