Hundreds turn out to plant thousands of trees

NORTH MANKATO April 20, 2008 12:46 am

— The saplings didn’t look like much, just foot-long twigs with a few straggly roots attached.
It took some imagination, a fair amount of faith and a real aptitude for patience to envision the twigs turning into a forest of towering cottonwood, maple and basswood trees.
Sort of like the imagination required to believe that a handful of local environmentalists could raise thousands of dollars to buy trees and get hundreds of area residents to give up a Saturday to plant more than 13,000 of them.
Sort of like the faith required to believe that slaving away on a cool, damp April day in Mankato and North Mankato might make a difference in slowing the rate of global climate change.
Sort of like the patience required to reach a personal goal of 100 seedlings planted in the belief that those 100 might eventually be joined by 999,900 others.
Those attitudes, along with a great doses of optimism, were prevalent Saturday as the Million Tree Project got underway along Highway 14.

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Photos

Alexis Just (left) took care to protect the roots as her mother Mindy opened the sod so the sapling could be planted. The duo set a personal goal of planting 100 trees, joining 381 other volunteers who planted 13,500 saplings along Highway 14 as Mankato-North Mankato kicked off the Million Tree Project. The Free Press

Bruce Birkemeyer, a retired social studies teacher and self-described “tree nut,” gave instructions to volunteers about how and where to plant the hackberry, chokecherry, cottonwood, basswood, maple, oak and dogwood trees. The Free Press

Jim Erdman (left) and Al Lawrence made the long trek to the top of the steep hill overlooking the Highway 14-Highway 169 interchange to make sure that portion received its share of trees. The Free Press