Treez Please is looking to turn empty lots green

By LINDA M. LINONIS

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Treez Please, a new community organization, is putting down roots — literally and figuratively.

The group’s mission is Youngstown-area community reforestation — so they’re planting trees. The group planted a tree Saturday at Wick Park, where David Sturtz, arborist for Youngstown Park and Recreation Department, presented a program on tree selection.

Debra Weaver, Treez Please president, said the group wants to “build community and promote education.”

Treez Please formed from two branches, so to speak, with the same idea.

The environmental committee of First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St., saw the need in the city to plant trees, said Frank Bishop, a church member. Weaver said she and Jean Engle wanted to start a tree-planting effort. The two groups heard about each other and did the smart thing — they joined forces. “I did the legal stuff and we combined under Treez Please,” explained Weaver, who is a lawyer.

Weaver, Engle and Bishop all mentioned the issue of global warming as one reason for the group’s formation.

“We all have to do our part when it comes to global warming. Planting trees in neighborhoods will help, and they’ll make the neighborhoods more pleasant with green spaces,” Weaver said.

“We’re a global community and we have to be concerned about the environment,” Engle said. “We know that planting trees can help stave off negative effects of global warming.

Engle said Treez Please also was inspired by the work of Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, an environmental activist in Kenya, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a grass-roots environmental organization, which has planted more than 30 million trees across Kenya to prevent soil erosion.

For complete story, see Monday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.