CommuniTree Partnership
CommuniTree Partnership
Location/Club: Rotary Club of Highland, Highland, Indiana, USA
Keywords: Tree planting, Sustainable economies, Storm surge, Carbon-neutrality, Air pollution, Ecosystems, Environmental Education
Description
On May 25, 2017, Highland Rotary members (a club of only 13 members) helped plant 33 trees.
The trees were granted to the Town of Highland by the “CommuniTree Partnership”, a collaboration of community, industry and government agencies that has a goal of creating a healthier and more diverse treepopulation by planting 3,000 trees in Northwest Indiana. Trees were planted by 5th grade students from two elementary schools, volunteers from the Rotary Club and Highland Community Foundation. The plantings were guided by representatives of the U.S. Forest Service, NIPSCO (the region’s gas and electric utility) and the Student Conservation Association, a Forest Service entity. Park maintenance employees will shepherd the young trees through several years until they are established.
Click here to download a copy of the School Tree Presentation that Richard Underkofler made to the 5th grade students.
The Town of Highland is presently engaged in a community tree inventory and management plan. The project will (1) collect tree inventory data on trees located on public land within the town, (2) conduct an analysis on the collected data, and (3) develop an urban forest management plan with goals to increase canopy cover, as well as filter and reduce storm water runoff impacts to Lake Michigan. Highland Rotary intends to grant $1,000 to the Town during our 2017-2018 fiscal year to replace inventory lost to the Emerald Ash Boer disease and to mitigate storm sewer flows to ditches that drain to Lake Michigan via a river on the town’s northern boundary.
Submitted by Richard Underkofler, Rotary Club of Highland, Highland, Indiana, USA