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Volunteers powered 2017 fall bare root tree planting in municipalities across Onondaga County. Photos Courtesy CCE Onondaga County

From Clare Carney, Natural Resource Educator for CCE Onondaga County:

This year, as part of an Onondaga County Community Development Block Grant, CCE Onondaga worked with multiple municipalities to coordinate volunteer tree plantings. One of the five communities to host the tree plantings in 2017 was the Town of DeWitt. Working with Town Naturalist Christine Manchester and her dedicated team of Tree Committee volunteers, we were able to secure homeowner-approved sites for ten trees to be planted in the right-of-way. Some homeowners joined in the tree planting, which took place on October 21st.

Manchester says, “The Town of Dewitt does seek resident approval prior to planting even in rights-of-way. It has been our experience that residents view this property as private because they mow it and there are very few sidewalks in the Town marking the boundary between private and public properties. We hope that one day, trees and sidewalks will both be treated as any other infrastructure and installed regularly in Town rights-of-way.”

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Town Naturalist Christine Manchester and volunteers got homeowner approval to plant trees in the right of way.

The other municipalities that participated in the 2017 Community Development tree plantings were the Town of Geddes, Village of Solvay, Town of Camillus, and Village of Baldwinsville. They planted in parks and public areas, so homeowner approval didn’t come into play. A total of 50 bare root trees were planted across the County by 60 volunteers of all ages attending the tree planting events. It was a wonderful season of community involvement and participation to support the renewal of urban forest canopy, green infrastructure, and environmental stewardship.