Tag Archives: Planting

Wyoming’s Arbor Day event set to honor longtime resident with planting at Kelloggsville High School

3-bottom, City of Wyoming, Environment, Recreation, , , , , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Jim Park shares is passion for the environment at a 2019 Arbor Day celebration with Kelloggsville students. The event was hosted by the Wyoming Tree Commission/The Tree Amigos. (Supplied)

“He was a person who cared,” is how many would describe longtime Wyoming resident Jim Ward.

 

Ward died in October at the age of 71, but left a legacy that impacted both the community he lived in, Wyoming, and the school his children attended, Kelloggsville Public Schools. This Thursday, April 28, Ward will be honored for his contributions to the City of Wyoming in a special Arbor Day celebration at Kelloggsville High School, 4787 S. Division Ave. The program, which will include the planting of an oak tree, is set for 10 a.m.

“Some people would see something that wasn’t right and would say ‘Isn’t this horrible,’ and that would be it,” said Ward’s wife, Jane. “Jim would see it and say ‘There has to be something we could do,’ and then it would be let’s see who we can get to help.”

It was in 2014 at a National Night Out neighborhood event that Ward would meet Estelle Slootmaker, who along with Ward and Greg Bryan founded the Wyoming Tree Commission or The Tree Amigos.

“I was concerned about the health of our oak trees because of the spongy moth infestation so I got permission to set up a table with information on caring for our oak trees,” Slootmaker said of the National Night Out event. “Jim and Jane approached me and chatted with me as did Greg Bryan.

“I was so tickled pink to find other tree huggers in my neighborhood.”

That chance meeting would lead to Slootmaker getting a phone call from Bryan asking her to meet with him and Ward and thus The Tree Amigos was born. A couple of years later, the Wyoming City Council would officially establish the group as the Wyoming Tree Commission.

The goal of the group over the years has been to improve the tree canopy in the City of Wyoming along with getting a Tree City USA designation and through Ward’s dedication the Commission has accomplished many of those goals, according to Slootmaker.

Jim Ward

“Jim was our mighty oak,” Slootmaker said. “He was there to plant the idea of a tree commission when our little group of neighbors first met – and he was integral to every project we completed. We miss him so very much.”

Among the Tree Commission’s accomplishments was a Tree City USA designation for the City of Wyoming from 2016 to 2021, the 16-tree Beverly Bryan Community Orchard at Wyoming West Elementary School, and tree plantings in several Wyoming neighborhoods along with planting one of the oldest trees in the world, a Dawn Redwood, at Wyoming’s Regional Center.

 

Jane Ward said her husband always had cared about the environment and was instrumental in getting an Earth Day committee going at their church.

 

A Godwin Heights graduate, Ward also was active on the neighborhood watch and involved in the teacher union at Forest Hills, where he served as the first media specialist at Forest Hills Northern High School. Along with his environmental passion, Ward had a passion for education and children, serving as the Quiz Bowl team coach and advising the National Honor Society.

That passion was not only reserved to Forest Hills, where Ward taught, but also to Kelloggsville, where his daughters had attended.

 

Because of his background as a media specialist, Ward had served as a consultant on the Kelloggsville High School’s library during a 2016 renovation project. It was through his efforts that he helped bring a Kent District Library branch to the school to serve both the community and the students. It also was at the KDL Kelloggsville branch that Ward helped host a tree-focused book discussion.

 

“He cared about the kids and the community,” Jane Ward said. “He saw a need and tried to do something and get things done.”

Scheduled to be in attendance for Thursday’s program will be Wyoming Mayor Jack Poll, Kelloggsville High School Principal Jim Alston, Kelloggsville High School student groups, and The Tree Amigos/City of Wyoming Tree Commission. The program is free and open to the public.

Wyoming Tree Commission looking for volunteers to help plant

3-bottom, City of Wyoming, Environment, Our Cities, Upcoming Events, , ,
Tree Commissioner Estelle Slootmaker holding the tree. (Supplied)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.staff

The Wyoming Tree Commission is looking for a few more people to help with tree plantings this weekend and next.

Plantings are set for the morning of Oct. 2 and 16, which are both Saturdays. For more information on helping, email treeamigoswyoming@gmail.com.

Recently, the Tree Commission received a DTE Energy Tree Planting Grant of $3,000. With an additional $1,000 from the commission’s funds, was able to purchase about 25 8-foot and 10-foot trees. More than a dozen residents have signed up to receive a tree. The trees are free to residents but they are required to help plant it and commit to maintaining the tree.

The city’s recently revised Master Plan calls for the city to set a tree canopy goal. the Tree Commission recommendation was a goal of 40%, the same goal as many cities have set such as the City of Grand Rapids. Currently, Wyoming has an approximate tree canopy of 13.5%, as determined by an iTree survey that looks at aerial photographs. 

The Tree Amigos is a volunteer City of Wyoming commission seeking to improve the city’s overall tree canopy. They meet every second Monday of the month at 12:30 p.m. at the Wyoming City Hall, 1155 28th St. SW. 

For Arbor Day, Tree Commission celebrates resilience with a special tree planting

3-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Wyoming, , ,

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Resilience has been a theme for the past year as the world dealt with COVID-19, especially for local school districts which have had to move from virtual to in-person swiftly to meet with changing social distance guidelines.

So it seems only fitting that for this Arbor Day, the City of Wyoming’s Tree Commission would plant a tree considered a symbol of resilience – a Dawn Redwood – at Wyoming’s Regional Center, located at 36th Street and Byron Center Avenue.

“Here at our school, Wyoming Regional Center, this is the perfect tree for us because we talk a lot about resilience here and a lot about comeback stories and our mission is to work work with students with some very unique challenges to teach resilience and the power of new beginnings,” said Wyoming Regional Center Principal Allen Vigh. “This tree symoolizes all of those things.”

The tree was actually planted on Earth Day with a city proclamation presented by Mayor Pro Ten Sam Bolt. Along with the Tree Commission, H.O.P.E. Gardens Executive Director Julie Brunson was at the event. H.O.P.E Gardens partnered with the Tree Commission on the Dawn Redwood project.

“Thanks to the Tree Amigos (the Wyoming Tree Commission), our generous donors of this gift that will bring many future seasons of beauty, comfort and peace to the children who attend this school,” Vigh said.

Also called a Metasequoia, the Dawn Redwood existed when dinosaurs were living but were thought to be extinct. That was until about 1945, when botanists in China discovered the trees growing in the rice paddies of China’s Szechwan Province. It was soon discovered that about 1,000 Dawn Redwoods were living in very isolated groves in Southeastern China.

In 1947, Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum sent another expedition to China to collect seeds, bring back about four pounds. The following year, the seeds were being distributed to botanic gardens and universities across the world.

Wyoming city officials, Tree Commission members, and representatives from H.O.P.E. Gardens were part of the Arbor Day celebration. (WKTV)

The Dawn Redwood is a fast growing deciduous tree reaching a height of more than 110 feet with a 25-foot spread. Its leaves are bright green, turning copper in the fall before losing them until the following spring. Now protected in China — the Wold Conservation Union has classified it as critically endangered due to human encroachment — the tree was once used for cabinet making.

The Dawn Redwoods are one of only three redwoods found in the word. The Coast Redwoods grow along the Pacific cost from Southern Oregon to Central California. Giant Sequoias are usually found in California’s sierra Nevada mountains. There is a Giant Sequoia, about 95 feet tall, at Manistee’s Lake Bluff Bird Sanctuary.

Arbor Day

In the proclamation he read, Bolt talked about what Arbor Day, a day set aside to encourage people to plant trees.

In 1854, J. Sterling Morton moved from Detroit to the area that is now Nebraska. He and other pioneers noticed a lack of trees, which were needed to act as windbreaks to stabilize the soil and to give shade from the sun. Morton planted many trees around his own home and encouraged others to do the same.

On January 4, 1872, he proposed a holiday to plant trees on April 10 that year. This was known as “Arbor Day” and prizes were awarded to the counties and individuals who planted the most trees on the day. About one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day. In 1885, Arbor Day became a legal holiday and was moved to April 22, which was Morton’s birthday. In 1989 the official holiday was moved to the last Friday in April. 

In full bloom: Kent Garden Club beautifies Grand Rapids with cherry trees

3-bottom, Our Cities, Upcoming Events, , , ,

Members of the Kent Garden Club will help to plant nine Kwanzan Cherry Trees this Saturday. (Photos provided by Cynthia Larson Burden of Photos by Bur'den.
Members of the Kent Garden Club will help to plant nine Kwanzan Cherry Trees this Saturday. (Photos provided by Cynthia Larson Burden of Photos by Bur’den.)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Think of the last time you took a stroll along the west bank of the Grand River near the Grand Rapids Public Museum –  a very picturesque scene of the water and beautifully landscaped grounds. Hard to imagine it could be even more picture perfect, right? How about the addition of some flowering trees like Kwanzan Cherry Trees?

 

If you eyes just got wider and a smile slipped on your face at that thought then you are right in tune to the reaction of the members of the Kent Garden Club which will be planting those cherry trees this Saturday, April 16, along the west bank of the Grand River.

 

“The fact that it is Global Youth Service Day on Friday and then you have Earth Day on April 22 and Arbor Day April 29, it just seemed like the perfect project to do during the month of April,” said Adele Krhovsky, who is the Kent Garden Club president.

 

More than 100 years old, the Kent Garden Club, as part of its mission to encourage active interest in civic beautification, has for about 75 years helped oversee the planting and maintaining of the landscape at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The committee, Gardening on the Grand, is currently chaired by Kent Garden Club member Barb Hoogeboom.

 

“Once a month we come out and plant, prune and weed,” Krhovsky said, adding that the group has planted 500 daffodil bulbs.  Some of the members have focused on specific areas such as Kent Garden Club member Mary Block who takes care of all the urns at the Public Museum.

 

Kent Garden Club members get ready to plant and prune at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. (Photos by Cynthia Larson Burden of Photos by Bur'den.)
Kent Garden Club members get ready to plant and prune at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. (Photos provided by Cynthia Larson Burden of Photos by Bur’den.)

It was during one of the monthly Public Museum gatherings last year that the idea for the Kwanzan Cherry Trees was planted with the members and from there bloomed into a plan of action. The Kent Garden Club proposed the idea of adding the trees to the Public Museum, but due to the river restoration project, had to put the plan on hold until this March, Krhovsky said.

 

When it was determined that where the trees would be placed would not be impacted by the Grand River project, the membership moved into action, raising more than $2,500 for the trees and to have a tree specialist available on planting day. Scotts Miracle-Gro is providing fertilizer and mulch with a representative also scheduled to be there on Saturday as well.

 

More than 40 volunteers are expected on Saturday to help with the planting. There will be nine trees planted. The Kwanzan Cherry Tree, also called the Japanese Flowering Cherry, is  a popular selection because of its huge carnation-like pink cluster of flowers in the spring and for its green leaves, tinted with red, that turn a brilliant orange in the fall. It is planted in Washington D.C. along with the Yoshiko Cherry for the area’s annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The Kwanzan Cherry Tree is ornamental and does not bear fruit.

 

The trees being planted on Saturday are six to eight feet in height and will grow to 30 to 40 feet in maturity. The trees will blossom in full approximately one year after being planted, but some blossoming may occur this season. The tree’s lifespan is about 15 to 25 years.

 

The Public Museum is one of five gardens that the Kent Garden Club cultivates and maintains. The club coordinates volunteers to help with the gardening and those interested in participating or learning more about the Kent Garden Club should visit the group’s website at kentgardenclub.org or check out the group’s Facebook page.

 

The Kent Garden Club is part of The National Garden Clubs, Inc., which on May 2, the City of Grand Rapids will be home to The National Gardens Clubs’ 87th Annual Garden Club Convention, “Blooming on the Grand.” The convention will highlight what the Kent Garden Club has done for the city including the Museum’s grounds. For more on the convention, click here.

 

 

Payoff: Simply Beautiful

Area Education, Education, , , ,

Marcia DeVos, center, orchestrated the recent beautification project
Marcia DeVos, center, orchestrated the recent beautification project

By: Adrian Hirsch – School News Network

School was out for the day, but students didn’t need to go far to get to their next project. On the West side of Godwin Heights High School, a variety of decorative plants and flowers were laid out in wait of the young green thumbs to put them in the ground.

“I just like to help the community, I love to plant stuff,” said student volunteer Vanessa Flores, who said she has a garden at home.

The beautification project was initiated by Marcia DeVos, a teacher in the Regional Emotionally Impaired program and a coordinator for Godwin’s Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports program (PBIS).

From left, Students Enida Jahaj, Juana De La Cruz, and Vanessa Flores
From left, Students Enida Jahaj, Juana De La Cruz, and Vanessa Flores

DeVos said the idea stemmed from the district’s recent improvements to security and building upgrades, made possible by a community-approved bond. “There hasn’t been money for anything but the essentials,” she said. “Beautifying an area of the school that has long needed it is part of our message of Godwin pride.”

Students delivered evidence of Godwin pride by getting their hands dirty on what was one of the last hot days of the season.

“I’m proud of how supportive Godwin Heights is with students and how positive and supportive everyone is with each other,” said student Felicia McCallum, while digging with her friends.

“It was so great to see our students take ownership of that project and put their time into it with no expectation of a reward other than helping our school look welcoming to the parents and community,” said DeVos after the event.

Arnell Scott, left, helps Katie Hoffman free a plant from its pot
Arnell Scott, left, helps Katie Hoffman free a plant from its pot

Once again, the Godwin Heights community stepped up with anonymous donations for plant purchases. Kyle Groenink, an intern at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, volunteered to develop a landscaping plan and Mill Creek Farm Perennial LLC in Comstock Park sold plants to the school at cost.

Science teacher Katie Hoffman said the project was “all about building school culture,” and ties into an initiative by Principal Chad Conklin and other staff members to improve the school climate and involve students within the school community. “(DeVos) is a very hard worker, and probably doesn’t get enough credit for what she does,” added Hoffman about the project’s leader.

Be sure to check out School News Network for more stories about our great students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan!