Volunteers plant 360 trees
Shovels in hand, a small army of 75 volunteers came together Oct. 22 and 23 to plant 360 trees and shrubs throughout the Mountain Area.
On Friday, 150 trees were planted at the Ahwahnee Regional Park along trails, at the park entrance and around the soccer field and interpretive center.
On Saturday, trees were planted in Oakhurst, North Fork, Coarsegold and Bass Lake.
The well-organized effort was supported by a variety of businesses and government agencies.
"We decided to come out and help," said volunteer Rae Rockey, who, along with her daughter, Samantha, planted shrubs along Highway 41 and trees at the regional park. "We were encouraged to help beautify our neighborhood."
The shrubs and 8 to 10-foot tall trees that were planted -- all native to the area -- included Red Maple, Incense Cedar, Ponderosa Pine, Chinese Pistachio, California Black Oak, Eastern Redbud, Southern Magnolia and Chinese Elm.
The value of the 360 trees was estimated at $21,400.
Eastern Madera County was part of last weekend's 4,000 statewide tree planting project funded by the California ReLeaf American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grant Program through the USDA Forest Service. The Ahwahnee Regional Park and the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce received grant assistance from Tree Fresno to receive the 360 trees.
On hand for the planting were Karen Maroot, executive director of Tree Fresno, Patrick Denny, PG&E arborist, Fern Facchino, chairperson of Friends of Ahwahnee Park, Kathy McCorry, executive director of the Oakhurst Area Chamber of Commerce, Susan and Tim Madden, current and past president of the chamber, Douglas Anthony with DriWater, Lori Gardner, administrative services director for Madera County's Resource Management Agency and Ron Nishinaka, Tree Fresno project director.
Fresno engineering firm Provost and Pritchard, who has worked on other Tree Fresno projects, sent 25 employees to the Ahwahnee Park Friday to assist with the planting under the coordination of Kim Hans, human resources director.
Lindsay Quillen, a project administrator with Provost and Pritchard, said the company likes giving back to the community. "We love working with Tree Fresno and this is a fun, working field trip for us."
"It's phenomenal that Provost and Pritchard offered their help through Tree Fresno," said Facchino.
DriWater donated time release gel packs that will provide water to the Ahwahnee Park trees for 90 days. According to company representative Douglas Anthony, the gel packs are used when water systems are not available.
Past chamber president Adrian Bucca, D.D.S., paid for lunch and T-shirts for the 40 volunteers that helped with the Oakhurst planting. True Value Hardware donated shovels, spades and other supplies and Egan Excavating assisted with digging holes in the Oakhurst area while Randy Papike dug all 250 holes at Ahwahnee Regional Park.
Chamber staff, including McCorry, Jolene Eozalde and Darrin Soukup, dug 30 holes in the Oakhurst area the week leading up to the planting.
Susan Madden, complete with work gloves and shovel in hand, said the planting made the town look nicer for residents of the area, businesses and visitors and thanked the businesses that will be maintaining the trees in front of their stores throughout the Oakhurst area.
Tree Fresno is celebrating it's 25 year anniversary this year and Maroot announced a milestone for the organization with last weekend's planting. "Since Tree Fresno's inception, we have now planted more than 38,000 trees throughout the Central San Joaquin Valley."
