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Elm trees planted in Wick Park
Photo
Members of Treez Please, including Ralph Malmer of Austintown, center, plant a New Harmony elm tree on Elm Street in the devil strip near Wick Park on Saturday.
YOUNGSTOWN
What type of trees were planted on the Elm Street portion of Wick Park? Elm trees, of course.
To be more specific, about a dozen members of Treez Please planted three New Harmony elm trees Saturday on the Elm Street devil strip between Broadway and Park Avenue, across the street from First Unitarian Church.
Treez Please is a community organization focused on increasing the amount of green space in the city.
With these three, Treez Please members have planted 61 trees throughout the city this year.
“We want to make the city more beautiful and aesthetically pleasing by planting trees,” said Marilyn Norconk, the organization’s treasurer.
The city’s park and recreation department dug the holes for the three trees.
Treez Please members got the trees into the ground.
Each tree is about 14 feet high and weighs about 450 pounds.
After planting the trees, the organization had a fund-raising event at First Unitarian.
Susie Beiersdorfer, co-president of Treez Please, said the trees help beautify the neighborhood.
“It also brings people together and serves as a habitat for animals,” she said.
The planting also commemorates the city’s Tree City USA status from the National Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters.
In addition to Wick Park, Treez Please has planted trees this year in the Idora Neighborhood, Lincoln Park, the Irma Davis Playground and Common Ground. The latter is two vacant lots owned by the organization on the corner of Broadway and Kensington Avenue on the North Side.
The Raymond Wean Foundation gave $16,000 to Treez Please to purchase and plant trees and to hire interns to teach them about planting trees and community organizing related to environmental and tree issues, Norconk said.