Free Trees
Free trees from the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership are being offered in Pike County. The Arbor Day Foundation offers free or low cost trees elsewhere too for their wide-ranging benefits.
The last day to order resilient varieties of free native tree saplings and shrubs for fall planting in Pike County is Friday, June 30, through Pike County Conservation District (PCCD), who partnered with the Keystone 10 Million Trees Program, says Rachael Marques, PCCD watershed specialist. The offer will likely be back in January 2024 for spring planting, she said. In New York State and elsewhere, the Arbor Day Foundation also works with various partners to offer free or low cost native trees that are mailed to people to plant.
This is the third season for the PCCD offer, and its popularity is rising, Marques said. When first introduced, 150 trees were ordered; then last February 1100 trees were ordered for spring. She expects more orders with the current opportunity. She could provide no certainty about future seasons’ programs and, given nature’s variability, whether all the trees requested will be available. Most popular have been sugar maples, oaks and flowering dogwoods.
Trees and shrubs suited to different soil types are available as well as tubes and stakes to help stave off deer. Using native trees and shrubs is key for sustaining pollinators and others on the ecological food chain, as evolution has adapted them to native plants.
“The program works with southern Pennsylvania growers to coordinate deliveries,” Marques said. “Funding is from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to improve waters by stabilizing banks and keeping sediment out. It benefits the Delaware Watershed too, filtering out sediment and pollutants and stabilizing shores. PCCD monitors surface water, using several streams to monitor water quality. Though we find high to exceptional water quality, this program is preventive. Prevention is cheaper than reaction.”
Meanwhile, 33 percent of Pennsylvania’s 85,000 miles of rivers and streams do not meet water quality standards for water supply, aquatic life, recreation, or fish consumption. Pennsylvania is one of six states on the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, which is why it is a tree program beneficiary.
The focus for PCCD with the tree program is stream health. Runoff ingredients such as nitrogen nourish trees but pollute streams, and tree roots stabilize soil. But the Keystone 10 Millon Trees Partnership, begun in 2018 and now at 5, 390,000 trees “and counting,” cites other significant benefits of trees, such as raising property values, improving air quality and absorbing greenhouse gases.
Trees also provide shade and windbreaks that reduce energy costs, and recent Japanese research on “forest bathing” indicates that just walking among trees has health benefits.
According to a 2019 Japanese study published in the medical journal Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, “‘forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku)’ has positive physiological effects, such as blood pressure reduction, improvement of autonomic and immune functions, as well as psychological effects of alleviating depression and improving mental health.”
For information about the PCCD free trees program, contact Rachael Marques: rmarques@pikepa.org.
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