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Outdoors
CRYSTAL FALLS/FELCH — Forest Park and North Dickinson County schools are planting 27,500 new trees in their school forests with help from VanOss Forestry Services in Crystal Falls. Two high school students have already planted 16,750 trees in the spring and summer of 2021.
Payton Woollard of Forest Park and Colin LaFave of North Dickinson were hired by VanOss Forestry Services to plant trees in their school forests. Payton and Colin planted 4,500 red pine and 5,000 white pine across 58 acres at the Forest Park school forest. They planted another 5,000 red pine and 2,250 white pine across 24 acres at the North Dickinson school forest.
Brock VanOss, a graduate of North Dickinson, and other consulting foresters on his staff will help both schools manage their forest for education, recreation and economic benefits for students, teachers and the community.
The trees will help reduce erosion and keep sediment out of the Great Lakes, as both school forests are located within the Great Lakes watershed.
This effort is part of a larger project with U.S. Forest Service, Arbor Day Foundation and Michigan Department of Natural Resources to help 10 schools throughout Michigan plant 110,000 trees in their school forests. Five schools in the UP are participating in the project – Forest Park, North Dickinson, Holman Elementary School, Chassell Township Schools and Tahquamenon Area School.
Funding for the tree-planting is provided through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and Arbor Day Foundation. Arbor Day Foundation provided $50,000 to buy trees as matching funds to $254,000 from the U.S. Forest Service to cover other project costs.
All 10 schools will be able to apply for Tree Campus K-12 certification after they plant their trees, celebrate Arbor Day next spring and establish a Tree Campus team to implement their school forest education plan.
All schools have a forest stewardship plan for their school forest, funded by an earlier grant from U.S. Forest Service and the DNR.