Richmond residents get hands dirty for good cause

Community members interested in
reducing the city’s carbon emissions
planted 300 seedlings at Broad Rock
Park in Southside during Saturday’s
“cool cities” event.

Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, who in
August 2006 signed the U.S. Mayor’s
Climate Protection Agreement, supported
the planting as a way to make
Richmond more carbon-neutral.

Since signing the agreement, Wilder
and the Cool Cities Committee have
worked together on efforts, such as
the tree planting, to fulfill the goal of
reducing carbon dioxide pollution to 7
percent less than 1990 levels by 2012.

Planting trees is not a new initiative,
said J.R. Pope, director of the Richmond
Department of Parks, Recreation and
Community Facilities, after he thanked
the 45 volunteers.

“We’re starting something that people
have been doing for years,” he said.

Not only do trees provide beauty
and shade, but they also serve a more
environmentally beneficial purpose,
explained one volunteer.

“Trees sequester carbon on their
own,” said Bud Watson, an adjunct
instructor of environmental studies
at VCU, as he dug a hole for his
seedling.

He said many cities look only to cutting
automobile and industry emissions
as ways to reduce carbon levels. They
need to look into planting trees, he said,
because it is a win-win situation.

Before planting began, Mike Mather of
the Department of Public Works’ Urban
Forestry Division told the volunteers
how to plant the seedlings so they will
flourish before they are transplanted to
local parks in about two years.

Volunteers from schools, churches and
neighborhoods showed up to help make
a positive impact on the community.

“We were looking to find a way to help
the community, and someone found this
event,” said Barrett Clark, a graduate of
Virginia Tech who lives in Richmond.
He came with a group of friends from
church, some of whom came all the way
from Maryland to plant the trees.

Frito-Lay donated the 150 dogwoods
and 150 red maples as part of its tree
giveaway award that Tyla Matteson,
who works for the Cool Cities Committee,
applied for and received. She said
the event was part of a tree-planting
initiative hosted by the United Nations
Environmental Program, called the
Billion Tree Project.

“The idea is to plant a lot of trees
around the world to try and absorb the
carbon,” Matteson said.

After volunteers planted the trees,
Matteson said it takes more than just
planting to make an impact.

“Just putting a tree in the ground
doesn’t make you a tree steward,” she
said. “You have to water it, take care of
it (and) come check on it.”

Pope said he was hoping to train
volunteers from the group so they could
drive the watering truck and take care
of the trees. He hopes that volunteers
will take an interest in looking after
their trees.

“You people put your sweat equity
into (these trees),” he said. “You didn’t
just stand there. . You got your knees
dirty.”

The tree planting was a combined
effort of Richmond Parks, Recreation
and Community Facilities, which found
the planting site and prepared the soil,
the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club
and the Chesapeake Climate Action
Network.