I’ve known of the Watershed Stewards Academy (WSA) for about 5 years through their Backyard Buffers Program. In the Spring, WSA offers small bundles of native bare root seedlings for trees and shrubs, which I purchased for a nominal amount and have planted with good success. It feels good to plant a short little stick of a tree and 4 years later it’s 12’ tall.

But it was last Spring, while picking up my BB trees, that I had the chance to meet WSA’s Jeff Popp (Director of Restoration) and Faith Waaramaa (Restoration Coordinator) and be introduced to the Tree Troopers Program. Four informative online sessions later, I had my designation and was ready to plant along with the Bay Ridge Civic Association’s (BRCA) Forest Management Committee (FMC).

Our mission was to plant 100 native canopy and understory trees that would provide beneficial habitat for native pollinators, birds, and animals, including in time food source amendment for the deer population. In addition, we wanted to plant flowering trees that would beautify the neighborhood along community roads. We were excited!

Pictured, left to right: Jennifer Wazenski, Greg Connor, Pat Burns, Bill Davidson, Faith Waaramaa

Tree Project planning

So, you want to plant 200 trees? Yup. How about 100? Okay, 100 it is!

That’s a summation of one of our first email exchanges with Faith and Jeff from WSA. At the outset, it was easy to get super excited about a project like this without realizing what was really involved in doing it well. After that exchange and our preliminary site visit, we had a better understanding of preparations needed and were confident that we could succeed in planting and maintaining 100 trees.

When the planning process began, we had a clear purpose of the benefits it would bring to the wildlife and neighborhood, and we shared the excitement with our community via our newsletter and social media.

The project was broken down into components. Our first step was to identify sites where we could have a positive impact on the forest without overcoming or creating obstacles to our success in planting or maintaining the new trees going forward. We were very conscious of not wanting to plant trees where we would get any pushback. Avoiding neighboring properties and buffer zones, we selected sites that were within 100’ of a road so we could water and maintain them going forward with less difficulty.

After selecting the general sites, we evaluated the soil and growing conditions in each location (soil composition, moisture level, and sun exposure). WSA provided us with their Resilient Tree Species Manual and Usage Grid so we could map and select trees that would have the highest probability of survival in each location. These invaluable tools, including site visits with WSA, helped us make good choices in tree selection and location.

SITE PREPARATION

Long pants tucked into boots, long sleeves, gloves, eye protection and bug spray (lots of bug spray). We had to cut a significant amount of wineberry and remain committed to doing our best to keep it in check. It was important to have the planting sites be easily accessible; we didn’t want our volunteers to walk through high bramble or stilt grass to get to planting spots. These conditions would have been a significant barrier to volunteer engagement.

Remember to call Miss Utility well in advance! They have a waiting period that allows time for marking. That held us up for a few days, but we didn’t want to be the folks that took out the internet for the whole neighborhood.

Once our planting sites were cleared and marked, we staked and labeled tree type for each spot and were then ready to start digging. We wanted to have all the holes pre-dug for planting day. We rented a large power auger to dig holes that worked well but it was cumbersome to move around the woods. WSA chipped in their 2-person portable auger and that worked great (remember to bring the earplugs).

Our trees, mulch, stakes, and caging got delivered two days before our planting day. We distributed a bag of mulch and stakes to each pre-dug hole beforehand. We cut our deer cages to size, sorted the trees by site location, and gave them a good watering. But we kept the trees together and wrapped the perimeter with the cut cages to protect them overnight. The day before planting, we organized our equipment, made sure we had everything sorted properly, and lightly watered the trees so they weren’t too heavy on planting day.

PLANTING DAY

Early morning of planting day, we distributed the trees to the planting sites. Neighbors chipped in with borrowed utility trailers and trucks to get it done quickly.

At the kick-off, we had a great crowd of folks who came to support the effort - neighbors, other WSA Tree Trooper volunteers, WSA staff, and even a couple that lived on a boat that showed up to help. We gave a briefing of how we would work, a planting demonstration, kept our volunteers together and engaged, and moved from site to site with our water truck in tow. We were so pleased at how well and quickly the tree planting happened. Our volunteers had a great time, enjoyed working and talking together, and made an enormous impact on our community, watershed, and environment.

thank you!

There are so many people to acknowledge and thank for making this Tree Trooper Project a success.

Most of all, the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy, its staff, volunteers, and especially Faith Waaramaa of WSA for her guidance and assistance throughout. We couldn’t have done it without them. They have been the best in every conceivable way. Tree Troopers, and other WSA programs, are incredibly valuable to our County and are amazing opportunities to learn, engage, and support the health and betterment of our community and the environment.

In addition, the members of the BRCA FMC, including Greg Connor, Bill Davidson, Jennifer Wazenski, and Holly Patterson Moring for their help in planning, community engagement and execution, the BRCA Board for their steadfast support of the project, and to all the community members helping in the background and volunteers who came out on planting day to make it happen. Almost 40 volunteers came out and planted, staked, mulched, caged and watered 100 native trees in less than 4 hours. It was incredible to see the turnout.

For all the FMC members, it was a wonderful validation of the importance of the project and acknowledgement of our efforts to make it happen by our community. We are looking forward to watering our new trees, future plantings, and additional opportunities for community engagement in our forest’s health and continued sustainment.

And to my wife, Avery, our next-door neighbor’s, Richard and Jordan Smith, and all our neighbors who endured the unsightly presence of the unkept gardens in our yard and forestry materials and equipment in our driveway for the last 4 months while I’ve been in the woods. I promise I’ll clean it all up.

Thank you all! You have made this project such a success.