Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Overview
Trees provide a great benefit to the environment. They provide habitat for local
animal species, shade and shelter for livestock and other animals, a reduction of
CO2 in the air, and produce oxygen as well. Here are a few more facts that
demonstrate the benefits of planting trees:
The planting of trees means improved water quality, resulting in less runoff
and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply.
Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals into
streams. USDA Forest Service
One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four
tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten roomsize air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. U.S. Department of
Agriculture
Project Instructions
1. Educate Yourself
Contact local experts by calling your nearest Cooperative Extension
office at ://www.csrees.usda.gov/Extension/, your state Department of
Natural Resources office, or your county or city governments offices to
ask about current state and local conservation efforts. Ask if they are
aware of any upcoming tree plantings scheduled. Ask if they have a
specific targeted location in your county or city that needs attention. Ask
for their advice for how you should get started implementing a tree
planting project. They might be able to link you up other groups or
organizations that can help you plan and implement your project.
3. Set a Location
Sometimes talking with local experts and partners will lead you to decide
on a specific location. In other instances you may decide on a location
based on your knowledge of a specific area in need. If you are still having
difficulty finding a location for your planting try to contact your city or
county government, school, faith-based communities, or non-profit
organizations and ask if they have a need for this type of project at their
property.
Arrange a meeting with the staff or volunteer lead and conduct a site
visit. Be sure you do your research and verify that you are planting trees in
a safe area that is conducive to providing a healthy habitat for a tree.
Make sure there are no power lines in the area. Is the area going to get
enough light? Will it get too much water? Always contact Miss Utility (1800-257-7777) at least 48 hours prior to planting to verify that the area is
safe for planting.
Where can I get funding for the project supplies, trees and tools needed
for the project? Remember to buy local to support the local farmers and
economy.
Where can I find volunteers who would be excited about such a project?
Do I want to attach learning to this activity? If so, be sure and check out
the Trees the Trappers service learning activity at the end of this resource.
How will you pre-register volunteers so you will know how many people
are going to engage in this project?
Helpful Hint: HandsOn Action Centers can help you with preregistering
volunteers. You can also use an online free resource called VolunteerSpot
which will help you at communicate and pre-resister volunteers.
://www.volunteerspot.com/.
Do I need to have help from other volunteer leaders? Can I assign tasks to
those individuals to help me manage this project?
What is the timeline for this project? When will your project begin and
end? Will it be recurring? Because the trees will need to be maintained
over the course of two years, who will lead this effort? Where will
volunteers meet the day of the project? How will volunteers get to and
from the project? How long will the project take?
Will you want media coverage? How will you promote your event?
Helpful Hint: Be sure and check out the HandsOn planning tools and
templates at
://www.handsonnetwork.org/volunteers/gethandson/toolkits to better
help you document your plan and timeline.
5. Empower Youth Leaders
If you are working with youth on this project, keep in mind that the youth
voice is a key component in offering a high-quality youth project or
program. Young people should have an influence on the project. Allow
young people to suggest ideas for the current and future projects.
6. Promote!
Recruit volunteers (adult and youth). You may want to print fliers, publish in
local newsletters or newspapers, send emails, and use social media to
mobilize your networks. Use whatever medium you can to get the word
out and engage people in your effort. You can do this yourself or with the
help of partners and leaders youve found in the community.
7. Lead the Project
8. After tree is planted, water to settle soil and minimize large air
pockets.
Mulching
Apply 4 of mulch evenly to the entire disturbed surface area around the tree.
Avoid mounding mulch. Keep the mulch 2 clear of trunk to avoid creating
favorable places for pests and rotting of bark.
Watering
Water for recently planted trees is essential! Some water is better than none, but
3-5 gallons a week, if it doesnt rain, is ideal. Water slowly to avoid runoff.
6
Sources:
Watershed Activities to Encourage Restoration
://www.watershedactivities.com/projects/fall/plantree.html
7
Cut the brown, blue, red, and green sheets of paper into approximately
2x3 squares for around 30 pieces of each color.
Spread out the brown and blue tarps so that the brown tarp overlaps
of the blue tarp. The blue tarp should resemble a river buttressed by the
brown tarp, its banks. Spread the squares throughout the brown side of
the tarp
Procedures
When the volunteers arrive, ask them to list the environmental benefits of
trees.
Ask the students what they think the various pieces of paper represent.
Then explain what types of pollution the difference colors of paper
represent and the specific impacts each type has on the environment.
Helpful Hint: Use the Chesapeake Bay Program website as a resource to
help you describe the various pollutants.
http://www.chesapeakebay.net/status_pollutants.aspx?menuitem=19795
Ask one student to stand on the brown tarp telling them they will represent
a tree, and ask 3-5 students to stand on the blue tarp telling them they
will represent rain drops.
Explain that the tree student will pick up as many pieces of paper as they
can without moving and the rain drop student will pick up as much paper
as they can while being able to move but without crossing over the brown
tarp.
Set the blower on medium-high and blow the papers to the blue tarp
letting the students pick up the paper as described above.
Turn off the blower when finished and compare the numbers of paper
collected by the tree versus the number collected by the rain drop. Jot
down this data on a pad of paper.
Ask the students how they think they might keep fewer pieces of paper
(pollution) from getting to the blue tarp.
Arrange the pieces of paper throughout the brown tarp as previously, and
add 3-4 more students to be trees on the brown tarp while still leaving 34 on the blue tarp, telling them to collect the paper as before.
Set the blower on low-medium, blowing the paper to the blue tarp and
letting the trees/ raindrops collect the pieces of paper.
10
Jot down the numbers of paper collected by the trees versus the numbers
collected by the rain drops, and compare this data to the data from the
first trial.
11