To obtain the picture of members of the Rotary Club of St. Thomas and Interactors, staffer Betsy at the Kettle Creek Conservation Authority instructed us to “Say Trees”. The intergenerational group of 14 met at the yard on Ferguson Line near St. Thomas at 4 p.m. Wednesday May 9th. Hunter gave the tree planting demonstration – twice. She showed us how to plant young trees that are bigger than seedlings.  There are two cuts made by the shovel in a ‘T’ pattern; first the stem of the T and then the top and lift the shovel to create a furrow. Near the pointed end of the shovel appears a hole and that is where the second planter comes in.  We learned to firm the soil with our boots to eliminate air pockets and then tug on the tree to ensure it is firmly in place. 200 bitternut hickory and sycamore trees were planted in the next hour.  Most of the group worked in pairs, sometimes spelling each other off with the shovelling job. Ron Somerville gets the prize for going it alone with his bucket of trees and finishing before some of us. Ron has planted trees many times with scout troops in years gone by. 

Our 200 trees are some of over 100,000 that KCCA will plant this season. If the staff are planting for 8 hours, they use equipment to assist in the work. The day was sunny, the ground was moist and we ended our event with cookies and drinks. Thanks to Davey Moffatt for organizing this outing which was partly prompted by the mandate from RI President Ian Riseley. He asked us to plant one tree for every Rotary member this year – that’s over 1 million trees to help our planet.! Davey will report the statistics on projects in Club Central.