Green Up Day

More than 200 student volunteers joined the University of Cincinnati’s Center for Community Engagement in planting 134 trees for a large reforestation project during the Cincinnati Parks Green-Up Day in Burnet Woods, Saturday, May 2.

Wearing lime green event shirts, volunteers participated in a large reforestation project that focused on removing invasive species, such as honeysuckle trees, from the park and planting native species, including oak, dogwood and redbud trees, in their place.

Invasive species kill off a park’s native species, and the reforestation helps to keep a park’s ecosystem in order, said Mary Dorn, a florist with the Cincinnati Parks Board.

“We have done several events like this is the past, but this is the first time we have had reforestation trees to this extent, which is wonderful,” Dorn said.

Home Depot provided the 134 trees.

Jen Carter, the graduate assistant with the CCE Leadership House, coordinated the UC volunteers for the event.

“Green-Up Day is one of CCE’s signature events,” Carter said. “It runs at most of the parks throughout the spring to prepare the parks for [the] summer.”

Carter was pleased with the turnout of approximately 220 to 250 registered volunteers, compared to approxiamtely 150 who volunteered for the event on a rainy Saturday last year.

First-year students Brittney Denning, an architecture student, and Amanda Aten, an interior design student, were among the volunteers.

The pair spent the first part of their morning planting trees and then later began digging holes to plant daffodils to brighten up the park along the tree line.

The work performed at the event is an important part of keeping the park safe and beautiful.

“Clean and green makes the crime rates lower,” Dorn said.

Cleaner and prettier parks attract more visitors, and crimes in such environments are less prevalent.

Down a set of stone stairs, below the reforestation project, volunteers focused on a gardening project in a flower, butterfly and bird garden and also worked on cleaning up a playground.

The volunteers hauled off wheelbarrows of weeds, filled by their peers who weeded, also spread landscape fabric to prevent weeds in the future, and fresh mulch.

Michael George, the center director at Trailside in Burnet Woods, said that day lilies, purple cones and gay feathers were planted in the area to attract monarchs, callicore lights and skippers in the summer months.

Across the grass, more volunteers raked and shoveled fresh wood chips around the baby swings, while others hauled fallen branches out of the woods and removed plastic bottles and wrappers that littered the area.

“What we are knocking out in the course of a morning would take days or weeks otherwise,” George said.

The event was open to anyone who wanted to participate and included Cincinnatus scholarship recipients, nurturing nature lovers and students living in the CCE Leadership House.