Treez Please community organization is looking to turn empty lots green

The community group wants to leave empty lots better than it found them.

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.

Advantages to Youngstown

Though the plantings in Mahoning County will contribute in a small way toward helping the worldwide situation, Bishop noted the many empty lots in the Youngstown area.

“These are vacant lots that won’t be lived on,” Bishop said. “But planting trees there will create more oxygen, improve the community and eventually provide shade. If you have enough trees, they can lower the temperature by 10 degrees or so.”

And, of course, lowering the temperature will help decrease global warming.

3 projects planned

Weaver said the group has three projects planned so far. Treez Please is digging in on three lots on Broadway Street, which Weaver said were donated to the group by a local resident.

“The plans call for a raised meadow. We plan to bring in fill dirt to accomplish that so it’s not just a flat lot. We’ll be planting wildflowers, too,” Weaver said.

The next project will be an island or so-called “devil’s strip” on Rush Boulevard and the third, on lots on Ohio Avenue. All lots were donated to the group.

“We’re planting durable and desirable species,” said Bishop, who has an agricultural background. Bishop noted that the group welcomes input from Sturtz on the best varieties of trees to plant in a city environment.

Types of trees

Among some of the trees that will be planted will be locust, sycamore, pink dogwood, hackberry, hickory, river birch, oak, redbud, catalpa, hawthorne, tulip and buckeye.

“Native trees will be a focus,” Engle said. When the trees are first planted, she noted, they’ll be properly maintained to give them a good start. As the trees mature, they’ll offer another benefit. “They’ll be self-maintaining,” Engle said, “and they’ll help cut down on weeds.”

Engle also said the group will plant some shrubs, such as viburnum, in appropriate places.

Engle, who described herself as a “avid gardener,” added that the group also will take the organic route. “We won’t be using herbicides or pesticides. And we plan to compost with natural materials,” she said.

Bishop said the group e-mails information to about 60 people; meetings are generally attended by 12-15 people.

So far, donations from members have gotten the group started. “We are looking for sponsors and other contributors. And we’re pursuing grants from foundations,” he said.