Our team spent Arbor Day at the Shepherd Community Center planting 34 trees alongside the tree commission and a group of volunteers who turned out early and stayed until the last one was in the ground.
The planting fills in shade along the walkways and the open lawn where the community center’s programs happen. Species were selected with the tree commission for the soil and drainage conditions on the property, and spaced so the canopy will close without crowding as the trees mature.
We spend most of our working lives designing how water moves across a site. Mature canopy is one of the few things that helps at every stage of that process — intercepting rainfall before it reaches the ground, holding soil with root structure, reducing surface temperature, and slowing runoff before it ever reaches an inlet. A tree planted today is a stormwater asset in twenty years.
Thanks to the tree commission for organizing the day, to the Shepherd Community Center for hosting, and to every volunteer who showed up with a shovel. Planting is the easy part; the watering schedule over the next two summers is what decides whether all 34 make it. We will be back to check on them.