Two Davey Resource Group staff members, pictured in fluorescent jackets, provide tree planting instructions to volunteers.

Text and photos
By Deb Patterson
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — It was a chilly Saturday morning today, Nov. 2, for Community Tree Planting Day at Center Lake in Warsaw, but that didn’t stop about 30 volunteers from coming out to help plant trees along the new walkways of Central Park and continue the treeline of Bixler Park along SR 15, north of the tennis courts.

The biggest challenge was not the weather, but the hardened soil from drought. The goal was to plant 28 to 30 trees, but after 45 minutes, very few volunteers were able to remove more than several inches of soil.

The event was a result of the city receiving a grant of approximately 100 trees.

Volunteers included people with one or two friends, some were families. One family had a son among the Cub Scouts. Another family wanted to volunteer more for the city and get their children involved in volunteering, feeling it was a good start.

Matt Mason, right, jumps on the excavator to continue removing topsoil to plant one of the trees along SR 15 in Bixler Park. From left to right, Sam Mason, a Cub Scout, Melanie Mason and Ellie Mason, all participating.

Jackson Longenbaugh, deputy city planner, said the city applied for a grant last fall through the Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University. Iris Sorrell, an IU graduate student who oversaw the project, explained in more detail. “This is part of the McKinney Climate Fellowship through the IU, through the Environmental Resilience Institute,” Sorrell said, adding that the funds came from a USDA grant.

She further explained that the USDA indicated which cities would be part of the grant and that Warsaw applied. The downtown area matched the USDA guidelines.

Longenbaugh noted that “a lot of our parks were included in this jurisdiction and we thought it was a good opportunity to plant trees here (Center Lake) for everyone to use in the future.” » He stressed that the 100 trees will be planted around parks in this jurisdiction as well as on certain private properties. Trees will also be planted by December at Fribley Field, Richardson-DuBois Park and Hire Park.

Sorrell, who worked with the city from May to August, determined, along with Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer, where the trees would go. She also coordinated a survey on what types of trees people wanted to see. She said once the area was marked off and the number of trees was determined, there were a few left. She accessed the map again, found additional locations on private property, and went door to door.

Some of these areas include: Trinity Methodist Church, Animal Medical Center, Chamber of Commerce Building, north of the old Marsh Building on Winona and Warsaw Meadows.

“Today it’s all converging to be able to plant them,” Sorrell said. Davey Resource Group will undertake or sub-contract the planting of the remaining trees as well as the maintenance of all trees receiving the grant for the next three years. At the end of these three years, responsibility will return to the parks department, with regard to people in municipal parks and private owners.

The trees are mostly ornamental flowering trees, with a few larger trees. Some of the trees include Allegheny serviceberry, American hornbeam, cottonwood tulips, black gum, white oak, and river birch. “All of them are indigenous and a perfect match for the site they are in,” Longenbaugh said. Sorrell added that the survey indicated that flowering trees were what most people wanted. “They look really good downtown,” she said.

Longenbaugh said planting trees in the park is a good opportunity to “bring more awareness to downtown trees and urban trees.” Having volunteers come here to help is super awesome. He added that it was a “great opportunity to create a tree canopy that benefits everyone here in Warsaw.” Trees in general have many benefits. …

“We really don’t have a lot of forest resources here in the city. We don’t have an arborist. We don’t have programs like that,” Longenbaugh said. “I think the awarding of this (grant) has been really helpful and we can hopefully create some awareness, initiatives more similar to urban grant awareness initiatives, whether it’s from tree care, tree felling, invasive species, or just getting more trees.”

Additionally, Sorrell said, “What’s most interesting to us about this area, if you get an aerial view, is that there’s a lot of asphalt and concrete. These absorb so much heat…so the trees are able to: Shade the area more, especially along these walkways, which is what we are aiming for and it (the tree) actually reflects more light upwards… helps to cool down. Shade often cools the area nearly 10 degrees cooler than if you’re in the sun.

Warsaw has not been designated a City of Trees, but Longenbaugh said there have been discussions about applying for such a designation. However, he is still learning what this resource designation actually means. “This is our first step toward more environmental or maintenance programs here in the city.”