Tag Archives: Wyoming Tree Commission

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.

School News Network: Students learn from the fruits of their labors

3-bottom, , , , ,

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

By Erin Albanese

School News Network

 

Five young apple trees grow outside West Elementary School. They are the beginnings of the Beverly Bryan Community Orchard, which could someday flourish with pear, plum and chestnut trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes, and feature benches and mulch for beautification.

 

The eventual goal is to feed hungry students and offer fresh produce to neighbors. It also provides the opportunity to teach agriculture to students, who will tend, water and harvest the orchard, said Kent School Services Network coordinator Erika VanDyke, who works to connect West students and families with local resources.

 

The orchard is being developed through a partnership with the Wyoming Tree Commission, called The Tree Amigos. It is named after the late wife of Tree Commissioner Greg Bryan, who donated $5,000 to the project.

 

Students recently watered the dwarf heirloom trees, checking out the little apples hanging from the branches. “I find it exciting that we are going to have fresh apples,” said third-grader Lyric McPhee.

 

Habitat for Humanity donated the trees from a downtown lot it is developing. A crew of volunteers recently planted them at West.

 

Check out School News Network for more stories about students, schools, and faculty in West Michigan.

Wyoming resident’s donation helps Tree Commission to jump start fundraising efforts

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

Tree Commission Vice-Chair Greg Bryan (center with check) with the Tree Commission and City Council member Kent Vanderwood (far right).

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

joanne@wktv.org

 

Greg Bryan and his wife, Beverly, watched as the City of Wyoming was forced to remove the city trees. First it was due to the Dutch Elm Disease which wiped out about 75 percent of North American’s elm trees by 1989.

 

Then in early 200s, it was the Emerald Ash Borer, an insect that is lethal to ash trees, with the City of Wyoming becoming part of a countywide Emerald Ash Borer Quarantine.

 

“They cutdown more than a 1,000 trees,” Bryan said. “My wife turned to me and said ‘We have to do something.’”

 

Bryan did. He helped establish the Wyoming Tree Commission and this week, in memory of his wife who passed way in the spring, he donated $10,000 to the commission to help get its fundraising efforts moving forward.

 

Tree Commission Vice Char Greg Bryan shakes hands with City Council member Kent Vanderwood at the the check presentation.

“We are in the process of raising funds,” Bryan said. “For many of the grants we are seeking, you need to have matching funds. I am hoping this will help in the group’s fundraising efforts.”

 

Just a year-old, the Wyoming Tree Commission’s focus has been centered on planting trees. It recently helped the city be named as a Tree City USA, a national movement formed in 1976 to provide the framework necessary for communities to manage and expand their public trees.

 

With that honor, the commission, named nicknamed the Tree Amigos, has been focusing on projects within the city including a collaboration with Wyoming Public Schools in developing a small orchard at West Elementary School.

 

Tree Commission Chairperson Stella Slootmaker, who also helped establish the Tree Commission, said during the commission’s recent meeting, that the group is working to raise funds by looking at various grant opportunities through the Department of Natural Resources and the USDA Farm to School Grant.

 

The Tree Commission also has sponsorships available at various levels, the Service Berry level, $100 – $499; the Silver Maple level, $500 – $999; and the Mighty Oak level, $1,000 or more. For more information about the  Wyoming Tree Commission, email treeamigoswyoming@gmail.com.

Arbor Day Foundation names Wyoming Tree City USA

3-bottom, City of Wyoming, , , , ,

The City of Wyoming Tree Commission accepts the city’s new Tree USA designation at the Tree City Awards in Lansing earlier this month.

The Arbor Day Foundation named The City of Wyoming a 2016 Tree City USA in honor of its commitment to effective urban forest management. Wyoming achieved Tree City USA recognition by meeting the program’s four requirements: a tree board or department, a tree-care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

 

“Tree City USA communities see the impact an urban forest has in a community firsthand,” said Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Additionally, recognition brings residents together and creates a sense of community pride, whether it’s through volunteer engagement or public education.”

 

Wyoming began its quest to attain Tree City USA status in February 2016 when a group of committed residents formed The Tree Amigos. Wyoming commissioners voted in July 2016 to formally establish them as the Wyoming Tree Commission. The Tree Amigos are celebrating Arbor Day 2017 with three events:

 

  • Arbor Day Tree Planting and Proclamation by Mayor Jack Poll at City Hall, 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 20. DeHamer Brothers Landscaping has donated a ten-foot tall serviceberry tree to commemorate this very special occasion.
  • Arbor Day Tree Education event with 60 Kellogsville students at Ideal Park, 5843 Crippen Ave SW, 49548 at 1 p.m. Friday, April 28. In addition to educational activities, the Kelloggsville Pep Band will play. The Tree Amigos will present each student a blue spruce sapling – and careful directions for its care.
  • Presentation of Tree City USA Award and flag to Wyoming City Council at City Hall, 7 p.m. Monday, May 1. The Tree Amigos will make a five-minute presentation and update to the City council.

 

Trees provide multiple benefits to a community when properly planted and maintained. They improve the visual appeal of a neighborhood, increase property values, reduce home energy costs, remove air pollutants and provide wildlife habitat, among many other benefits.

 

More information on the Tree City USA program is available at arborday.org/TreeCityUSA. Find the Wyoming Tree Commission on Facebook, The Tree Amigos, or email TreeAmigosWyoming@gmail.com.

 

The Wyoming Tree Commission, nick-named The Tree Amigos, seeks to develop and promote programs that maintain and improve Wyoming’s tree assets in our city’s public and private properties. We strive to foster a healthy, species-diverse tree canopy that meets or exceeds coverage percentages suggested by the Michigan DNR, U.S. Forest Service and National Association of State Foresters.