We’re Planting Trees – Can You Help?

To kick off the project for the restoration of native trees, Lower Olentangy Urban Arboretum (LOUA) partners will begin planting 170 purchased trees on Saturday, October 1st, and then continuing the following two Saturdays for a total of three planting days.

Arboretum partners and volunteers will meet at 9 am at the Indianola Informal K-8 School parking lot on the north side of Weber Road. An Ohio Department of Natural Resources staffer will be on hand to give everyone a quick lesson on how to plant a tree before volunteers are teamed up.

“We expect to plant approximately 60 trees each of the three work days” said Mike McLaughlin, arboretum board member. “Trees range in height from 6’ to 8’, most are in containers, but a few are balled and in burlap.”

Anyone is welcome to volunteer and is encouraged to contact Peter Kovarik at
pkovarik@cscc.edu, or phoning him at 261-0092, so that arboretum workers can make sure to have enough supplies available. Volunteers are encouraged to bring a shovel; arboretum partners will be providing water.

In other arboretum news, two preliminary arboretum walks have been drawn; a short and a long. Both walks begin at the Indianola Informal K-8 School at 251 West Weber Road where the school administration has generously agreed to allow future visitors to the arboretum space to park in the north parking lot.
The short walk, which is expecting to take less than an hour, will highlight 34 native Franklin County deciduous trees while the long walk highlights 43.

Although the long walk hasn’t been measured yet, it takes visitors past other neighborhood jewels including two churches, two schools, an organic grocery store, a tavern, a Dairy Queen, and through a Columbus City park.

Work on the arboretum will continue into the winter as arboretum partners will be working on making the tree markers for those identified on the walks, working with city administration to advise regarding signs for the two routes and safety improvements, and printing the walk brochures.

LOUA will also continue to work with the city’s department of recs and parks whose support for the arboretum project has really been above and beyond, for a possible supplementary tree planting in the spring.

Arboretum board members are envisioning a spring ribbon-cutting event while the dogwoods are in bloom.

Until next time!