It can be paradoxical to think that February is an important month for trees. It is a little difficult to imagine a tree canopy when the ground is covered by more than a few inches of snow, accompanied by polar temperatures. However, there are people all across Pennsylvania (and almost certainly other states) who can imagine tree canopies in times and places that most other people would not. There is in fact a formal program (in addition to many informal efforts) to increase the tree canopy by planting more trees across Pennsylvania.
The most widely known formal program is Treevitalize, which is currently coordinated by the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. This statewide program grew out of a Philadelphia area initiative of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) in the mid-2000s to plant as many trees as possible. The program steadily expanded across the state over the next 10 years or so; by 2013 it was available in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. To date, the program has been responsible for planting more than 350,000 trees.
This is very impressive. Even more impressive is the PHS current program to Plant One Million Trees. These million trees will eventually spread across the 13 counties of southeastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, and southern New Jersey. PHS is working with a variety of state and local government agencies in this initiative. The effort also includes an entire array of programs about how to plant and care for trees after they have been planted.
One of those trees will be planted by my son and me. We got a tiny seedling from Morris Arboretum. They taught us how to take care of it in a pot and gave us a little plastic bag to use as a kind of terrarium until the seedling got bigger. Knowing my son, I knew I had to find a place for it in the yard. Fortunately, there was a spot where we had had to remove a dead tree several years ago. After a year or so in the pots (actually, a succession of pots), the tree will get moved to the front yard. The folks at Morris told me that the long term chances of survival are better if we transplant it into the ground next year instead of this year.
Another impressive effort is the work of the Philadelphia Orchard Project. They have planted and developed nearly 50 fruit orchards all across Philadelphia. Equally impressively, they will only plant an orchard when there are people in the nearby community who will be willing to maintain it. As I have learned the very hard way, it was one thing to be able to plant a fruit tree—or any other kind of tree for that matter. It is another thing entirely to actively maintain that tree.
Thinking of maintaining trees reminds that it is nearly time for my annual fruit tree pruning. I need to figure out how to prune the trees in the backyard. It is February, and in spite of the snow on the ground, spring will be coming in the foreseeable future. I need to get the trees ready–hopefully I’ll get some fruit this year!
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