Hamline Midway neighborhood seeking volunteer groups for Earth Week service opportunity April 2022
“Building a tree bed to create future shade in the city”
Who is this service opportunity for?
Specifically, groups of 5-15 people who are looking for an Earth Week activity, or a service day, or team building activity. Groups are welcomed from any source and not limited to families, scouts, university student groups, businesses, teams, schools, and places of worship. This activity is best for folks who can lift 25 pounds or more. Children younger than 12 years old may find this work hard to do, but there is a playground adjacent to the site, so parents who want to volunteer with youth younger than 12 can be accommodated.
What will our service group be doing?
Groups will be needed to prepare the site and to fill the tree bed with gravel. Site preparation will involve digging up native plants, and replanting them at a nearby naturalized right-of-way. Gravel bed filling involves using buckets and wheelbarrows to move pea gravel from a parking lot to the tree bed, about 30 ft away. Both activities will involve digging with shovels, bending, and lifting. We encourage volunteers to wear clothes and closed-toe shoes that can get dirty. Shovels, gloves, and wheelbarrows can be provided, but we welcome groups who can bring some of their own supplies.
When can we perform our group service?
Dates can be arranged to match your group’s schedule! Service groups will be needed across multiple dates, to complete bed-building. Evening (sometime between 5:30pm - 7pm ) and weekend times can be arranged with your group for 2 hour events. Since we won’t be able to work in rainy weather, we will try to set-up raindates with you if possible. Date options include:
Weekends April 9 & 10th; April 23rd & 24th; and April 30th & May 1st
Evenings ( between 5:30pm - 7pm ) April 11th -May 13th
Where will we be doing our group service?
Most of the volunteer work will happen at the Friend School of Minnesota grounds (while school is not in session). The school is located at 1365 Englewood Ave, St Paul, MN 55104. For a limited amount of sessions, we will be replanting at a nearby location near Snelling Avenue and Pierce Butler Route in the same neighborhood. Indoor facilities will NOT be available for volunteers. In fact, all work will be outdoors and covid 19 precautions will be left up to the group’s choice. If your group would like your volunteer leaders to be vaccinated and/or masked, we can easily accommodate this.
Why are we building a tree propagation bed?
Service groups are being sought in support of an urban forestry project for the Hamline Midway neighborhood in St. Paul. Volunteers are needed to help construct a new tree gravel propagation bed that will be located on the grounds of the Friends School of Minnesota. This gravel tree bed will nurture bare-root trees for summer seasons and allow for robust root growth. In the fall, when the trees are extracted and planted throughout the neighborhood, the root systems become highly developed and have the best chance of a successful transplanting.
The Hamline Midway Environment Committee (of the Hamline Midway Coalition hamlinemidway.org, the neighborhood’s District council), is managing the neighborhood’s bed build for the Free Trees program. Trees cultivated in this bed will be distributed in the community for private property locations. Because the City of St. Paul supports public lands like parks and boulevards, our plantings are targeted for private property in order to supplement the greatest tree canopy deficiencies in the area. Our city has been hit hard by invasive pests like Emerald Ash Borer and stressed trees due to climate change. This has created inequities in our tree canopy. Areas in our community that have less canopy coverage tend to have more BIPOC neighbors and more neighbors experiencing poverty. Further, Midway children are more likely to live in less forested areas, which can range up to 8 degrees hotter than sectors with a more complete canopy. The HMC Free Trees program is targeting these environmental injustices.
How do we sign up?
Send an email to Mason at trees@hamlinemidway.org with your group’s contact person and phone number and we will begin the scheduling process. If you can, also provide the number of people in your group and what dates might work best for you. Let us know if you are bringing children or have tools or other resources (ie trucks for transporting) too.