Tuesday
Mar162010
Rooting for a Tree
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 04:37PM
Students at the Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge received a valuable message in tree hugging last month when a mulberry tree that was blocking the construction of a new theater building was moved rather than tossed to the chipper-shredder.
The specimen in question was no sapling. It topped out at 40 feet and weighed nearly 35,000 pounds – so transplanting the tree was no small feat. But the tree has played an important role in the school's 43-year history. Its leafy canopy provides a shady meeting spot for the gardening class, and the community often feasted on its abundant mulberries in the spring.
"Many students are here from preschool through high school and have grown up with the tree," says Highland Hall gardening teacher Juanita Gilmore.
So kids and parents raised the necessary funds, and a crane was brought in to carefully lift the tree, place it in the back of a truck, drive it to its new location 125 feet away and plant it with the same orientation as it had in its original spot.
Will it survive the big move? Parents, teachers and community members who came out to watch the big move hope so.
"The students were very intrigued about the process," Gilmore says. "They enjoyed watching what the workers did each day. Some were very excited, some were worried about the tree. Many of them were sending it magic through their fingers (their idea!) as they watched it being moved. I think the general feeling was that they were grateful that it was being saved."
Mulberry trees are known to be hardy, and this one is already sporting buds and "doing great," reports Martina Turner, who's in charge of communication and outreach at Highland Hall. Gilmore adds that it's even putting on mulberry flowers.
Now that's an Earth Day lesson for us all!
The specimen in question was no sapling. It topped out at 40 feet and weighed nearly 35,000 pounds – so transplanting the tree was no small feat. But the tree has played an important role in the school's 43-year history. Its leafy canopy provides a shady meeting spot for the gardening class, and the community often feasted on its abundant mulberries in the spring.
"Many students are here from preschool through high school and have grown up with the tree," says Highland Hall gardening teacher Juanita Gilmore.
So kids and parents raised the necessary funds, and a crane was brought in to carefully lift the tree, place it in the back of a truck, drive it to its new location 125 feet away and plant it with the same orientation as it had in its original spot.
Will it survive the big move? Parents, teachers and community members who came out to watch the big move hope so.
"The students were very intrigued about the process," Gilmore says. "They enjoyed watching what the workers did each day. Some were very excited, some were worried about the tree. Many of them were sending it magic through their fingers (their idea!) as they watched it being moved. I think the general feeling was that they were grateful that it was being saved."
Mulberry trees are known to be hardy, and this one is already sporting buds and "doing great," reports Martina Turner, who's in charge of communication and outreach at Highland Hall. Gilmore adds that it's even putting on mulberry flowers.
Now that's an Earth Day lesson for us all!
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http://www.phela.ru/?paged=22" rel="nofollow"> The specimen in question was no sapling. It topped out at 40 feet and weighed nearly [.......