Volunteers prep to plant a weeping larch in Perry’s Village Park on Arbor Day 2016. Photos by Steve Townes
The Village of Perry is another community that received Arbor Day 2016 funding through our Council in partnership with the DEC. Perry Tree Advisory Board Chair and Village Trustee Eleanor Jacobs sent in this report.
Securing the NYSUFC Arbor Day Community Grant was the first major accomplishment of the recently formed Village of Perry Tree Advisory Board (TAB). The group’s excitement at this achievement can’t be over-emphasized.
To implement the grant, the TAB worked with Village Parks Director Renee Koziel to select locations in the Village park to plant nine trees. The TAB selected the varieties of ginkgo, weeping larch, and Japanese white pine—and Ms. Koziel bought these from the Village’s tree supplier. The goals were to diversify tree plantings in the Village park, fill in spaces where trees were lacking, and plan for the future where trees may have to be removed.
Planting the weeping larch in Perry’s Village Park
Trees were planted on May 21, 2016, during the Village’s annual Clean Sweep event. This was an ideal time given that so many community members are working in the park and throughout the Village to paint, plant, mulch, and clean up. Press releases heralding the grant and the tree planting prior to the event were published in local papers. Information was also posted on the TAB’s Facebook page and website.
Tree board members were joined by Mayor Rick Hauser and community members, including a teenager doing community service, to plant trees. During the planting, a reporter from the Perry Herald took photos and interviewed TAB members. The TAB posted photos of the planting on its Facebook page after the event.
The Village has been highly supportive of the TAB and its efforts, including this grant, and purchased an additional tree so the TAB actually planted ten trees during Clean Sweep. Village employees dug the holes, and the village provided supplies such as fertilizer.
Planting a Japanese white pine in Perry’s Village Park
Securing the NYSUFC Arbor Day Community Grant is one important, motivating step in the efforts of TAB, which continues to work on developing a Village UrbanForest Master Plan, make plans to apply for a DEC Urban Forestry Grant, perform a preliminary and limited tree inventory, and work with the Perry Department of Public Works to encourage replanting when trees are removed or where there are trees unplanted.
On behalf of the Village of Perry Tree Advisory Board, thank you for this opportunity to move our urban forestry plan forward.