Seeding the future

Students have been planting trees on Arbor Day since 1872, when more than a million trees were planted in Nebraska for the first official celebration of trees.

Now add research, science and satellite imagery to the mix. That's what Cloquet students and staff did in advance of this year's Arbor Day plantings last Friday, with the goal of maximizing the chances the tiny seedlings will grow to big strong trees over the upcoming decades.

Cloquet High School teacher Matt Winbigler explained that they first sent students out into the school forest, 15 acres spread across the high school and middle school campus, to see what the conditions were like. They broke the forest into planting zones based on their observations.

"And then we also used ArcGIS, online and digital mapping, to view satellite imagery that included visual photography from space of the school forest with what's called the NDVI, a vegetation index that is usually used in agriculture to see where there's diseased or dead vegetation. They correlated those two things and, finally, looked at climate projections for individual tree species and matched what species are projected to thrive with the actual site."

That was all before they planted a single tree.

The planting Friday officially kicked off with an opening ceremony between the two schools, which featured a land blessing by teacher Wendy Waha, drumming by the Cedar Creek drum group and Native American students, an Arbor Day proclamation by mayor Roger Maki and a brief speech from social studies teacher and city councilor Chris Swanson.

Swanson said he was thrilled because of what the day represented: citizens showing up and doing things that are going to affect the future.

"This will go for generations, it's a really big deal," he said. "This was a lot of work to prepare and select the species. We need people to keep stepping up and stepping into the roles that they're called to fill."

Once the ceremony was over, classes took turns planting trees throughout the day, according to their selected zone.

Over by the middle school basketball court, a classroom of eighth-graders had planted 15 fruiting shrubs earlier that day with science teacher Kat Nistler, who took a later group to plant cedar trees on the hill by the football field.

A group of high school students planted white spruce trees and silver maple to replace ash trees near the middle school driveway that are declining. In groups they dug a hole, trimmed the roots of their seedling and planted it, then used a special diddle spade (with a bar to stand on) along with their feet to gently push the surrounding soil around the roots, and added water.

The planting of the tree wasn't the end of the process. Next the students used a handheld GPS device to determine the exact latitude and longitude of their tree. They entered the information onto a worksheet and, finally, tied a pink ribbon around their tree. This week they were going to complete the data entry portion for most of the trees that were planted on Arbor Day to populate the GIS map they created of the different parts of the school forest.

Winbigler said they are trying to "seed" the program. "As these students move forward, they already have some ownership over giving back to the community and the school, where they live, like 'I put that seedling there.' In the future it will be a treasure hunt for those kids with the geotagging. When they get older and take Swanson's government class, maybe they will write grants to try to support this or reach out to community businesses to provide fencing."

And what will those trees give back for all that effort?

They absorb carbon dioxide - a major greenhouse gas - and create oxygen. Trees help reduce flooding and erosion. They provide shade and reduce energy consumption when planted strategically. They help clean water and, as recent research has shown, keep people saner.

A group of five freshman girls named their spruce "Gertrude" and planned to make that part of the data entry for their tree. They all agreed it was nice to get outside and away from their computer screens on a glorious spring day.

Alexa Tristan was the unofficial spokesperson for their group, and the one who did most of the shoveling. She said it was a good experience.

"To contribute to something greater than ourselves and help the environment around us," she said. "As the climate is getting warmer most trees aren't learning to adapt. It's sad because trees really contribute to the environment.

"Long live Gertrude," she said.