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URBAN LEAVES
Tree News You Can Use
Winter Issue 2022
Vol. 9 No. 1
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HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Welcome 2022! “Branching Out” is our motto for 2022, and it promises to be an exciting and busy year for West Lafayette Tree Friends. While continuing to prune, plant, raise funds, and provide annual tree care, 2022 will see the birth of a municipal tree nursery. Our 30-40-50 campaign is ongoing (30 years a Tree City USA – 40 years of WL Tree Friends – a $50,000 goal towards the municipal tree nursery). Your love of trees and donations will make this all happen.
Quarterly issues of Urban Leaves offer updates of our programs – the Tribute Tree program, the Tree Trial, pruning and planting events, educational opportunities, and the status of our WL urban forest via the Tree Plotter, which offers electronic location to street trees in the City. There will be more about Tree Plotter in the Urban Leaves Spring issue (April) 2022.
Help us plant, prune, and celebrate trees!
Happy New Year! Happy Tree Year!
Be a donor! Be a volunteer!
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TREE FRIENDS: WHAT WE DO!
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It’s hard to believe it has been almost a year since WL Tree Friends launched our 30-40-50 initiative to fundraise for a municipal tree nursery. Since the launch of the campaign, we have been delighted with the support from our community and city leaders. Our fundraising efforts will go directly towards installing the tree nursery, including grading, tree saplings, irrigation, and digging a well. Here are some quick updates on this project:
- Over $38,000.00 raised, including in-kind donation for preliminary design work from MKSK Studios.
- 14.7 acres has been donated to the West Lafayette Parks and Recreation Foundation to support the new nursery site! The site is just west of the Purdue campus. More information to come.
- Survey work has been completed.
We want to celebrate the community’s efforts by planting tree saplings on Arbor Day, April 29, 2022! Stay tuned for more information on this event and how to get involved. Please help us reach our goal of $12,000 by April by donating using the button below!
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YOUR DONATIONS MAKE IT HAPPEN!
West Lafayette Tree Friends financially support the City in planting and maintaining the urban forest that we all enjoy – and that also brings ecological and financial benefits to the city. The specific focus for Tree Friends is on trees that line many of our streets, and the cost of these trees keeps rising (now around $450 per tree).
To help the City defray the cost of the trees, we have an annual fund drive, beginning in November. We thank all of you who have already contributed to our 2021-2022 drive. The needs are ongoing, however, and we appreciate every donation throughout the year.
We need and appreciate support for the following:
- The General Fund that receives contributions for unrestricted support
- The 30-40-50 Municipal Tree Nursery project
- The Tribute Tree program for honoring individuals or groups, or
- The WL Tree Friends Endowment.
To learn more about these funds and to donate go to https://wltreefriends.org. There is information there, as well, about how to donate by mail.
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MEET A TREE FRIEND - BOB VOELZ
Bob Voelz, a new volunteer for WL Tree Friends, was born in Burlington, Wisconsin, has a BS from U of Wisconsin, and a BS and MS from Ball State. Now retired from Ingersoll Rand company, he began his career there in 1961 by being on the road with his wife, Patricia. (six months at seven branches across many states). Bob says, “What a way to start a marriage; but we got much closer. After 56 years together we still enjoy our companionship.” (Compliments to you, Bob and Patricia!) Their family includes three children- Jon, James, and Kathryn, and six grandchildren. The couple moved to West Lafayette in August 2020 to be near family. Bob’s hobbies include woodworking, hiking, exercise, WL Tree Friends, and volunteering at the Lilly Nature Center. Top of his list of favorites is pruning trees.
When you ask Bob why he volunteers with the WLTF, he says he has a love of nature and likes to see the product of his pruning. “Each tree has its own shape and to keep that shape is a blessing.” Bob also likes to be able to identify the trees with tree tags (see the collage in the first article for a sample of the tree tags). Thanks, Bob, for your energetic contributions to our community and to the trees we love.
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TREE SWEATERS
About twelve years ago WL Tree Friends initiated a fun program to draw attention to the trees in our city and to reduce vandalism.
In the fall, we hang brightly knitted or crocheted rectangles (“sweaters”) onto newly planted trees. Each sweater has a tag hanging on it which shares a thought about the value of trees.
They say such things as “Future Home of Chubby Squirrels” and “Greenery is Scenery.” Previously, the sweaters have been primarily hung on trees in the campus area.
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We were pleased to note that when we started doing this, the number of young trees that were vandalized was greatly reduced.
This year, very few new trees were planted near campus, so the sweaters are concentrated on the young trees in the parking lot of Margerum City Hall and in the parking lot and the playground area at the Wellness Center on Kalberer Road.
They give visitors a bright welcome and a colorful reminder of the importance and beauty of trees. We are especially grateful to Joann Evers and Patty Jischke for the many sweaters they have created to protect and to inform about our trees.
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In the prologue to his book, The Nature of Oaks, Douglas W. Tallamy states, “Oak trees support more forms of life and more fascinating interactions than any other tree genus in North America.” He also reinforces the environmental benefits of oaks for watershed management, carbon sequestration and their importance in cooling our houses and buildings in summer and warming them in winter. Tallamy, an award-winning author and professor of Entomology and Wildlife at the University of Delaware, becomes our guide to an interesting and informative look at a year in the life of an oak tree. He explores what is happening within, on, under, and around oaks.
Organized month by month, the book is an accessible combination of well-researched facts and personal observations of the oak trees on Tallamy’s 10-acre property in southeastern Pennsylvania. Photographs of oak trees and of some of the creatures hosted by oaks add to the enjoyment of the book. A bibliography is included, as well as useful appendices on North American oak species and information on how to plant an oak. This is a delightful book that that will increase your appreciation of the central role oaks play in our ecosystem and in our lives.
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West Lafayette Tree Friends Meetings
Everyone is welcome! Second Tuesday of every month. Currently, meetings are being held virtually. Check out the City's public meeting calendar or Contact Bryce Patz, Community Forestry and Greenspace Manager for the Webex link or call-in number at bpatz@westlafayette.in.gov or 765-775-5170.
- Tuesday, February 8, 2022
- Tuesday, March 8, 2022
- Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Mark your calendars for an Arbor Day celebration! More information will follow.
For other events in the area, check out www.homeofpurdue.com.
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May brooks and trees and singing hills
Join in the chorus too,
And every gentle wind that blows Send happiness to you.
Irish Blessing
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Finally, a favor to ask. If you like this newsletter we send you, would you forward it to a few friends who perhaps don’t know about it? They can sign up to receive it themselves
right here. Thanks.
Find previous issues of Urban Leaves here.
Show your appreciation for someone with a Tribute Tree, and make a contribution to the health and beauty of West Lafayette. For more information
West Lafayette Tree Friends
222 N Chauncey Ave
West Lafayette, IN 47906
website / email us
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