A community of volunteers is helping people who lost trees in recent storms replant native species.
The Tree Replacement Project is organized by Kate Spontak of the Central Arkansas Master Naturalists. Spontak says, in addition to supporting the local environment, native trees are especially important for human health.
"They’re keeping us healthy. They’re taking pollution out of the air. Just walking out among the trees, people get healthier, studies have shown. Even in a hospital, if you’re able to look at trees, people heal faster.”
Spontak says native trees are also important for the local wildlife because they house insects and birds that support the local ecosystem.
"They’re also very important for keeping the soil on the ground," Spontak says. "If the rain is filtered through the trees then it's not washing away your soil because it's not coming down all at once and having to go somewhere all at once."
She says she wanted people to have a way to replace the trees lost in tornadoes and heavy storms. Without native trees, Spontak says everyone would soon notice the difference in temperature in areas that no longer had shade and cover from the sun.
“Their very shady neighborhoods were suddenly going to be very hot. And their electric bills were suddenly going to be very much higher in the summertime."
Right now, the Master Naturalists are only planting trees on residential properties. Spontak says this is because younger trees need extra care in the early stages of growth.
Spontak says it takes about an hour to plant each tree because she wants the people who receive trees to understand how to nourish the plants.
“And we’re also sending them documents so they have it on record," She says. "They can get free trees from other places or low cost bare root trees from other places, but if you don’t know how to plant it and make sure it survives then it’s hardly worth getting one of those. But if you know what you’re doing, then you can put back the dozen trees that you lost.”
For more information on the Tree Replacement Project, and to fill out an application for trees, visit the Arkansas Master Naturalists’ website.
