Students plant 100 trees in Fairview Park

South Fayette students add 100 trees to Fairview Park

Third-graders will grow up alongside trees they planted

Story & photos by Andrea Iglar

On a sunny day in May, 4-foottall kids poured from school buses into Fairview Park to plant trees. Clara Kitongo of Tree Pittsburgh held up a sapling.

“Do you know how big this tree is going to get?” asked Kitongo, manager of the environmental nonprofit’s One Tree Per Child program.

“You won’t even be able to see the top of it,” she said. “But right now, you’re taller than this tree. We’re planting many trees like this today.”

About 300 third- graders from South Fayette Intermediate School, along with 70 adult volunteers, planted 100 trees on a grassy knoll across the road from the Rotary Pavilion.

Tree Pittsburgh, based in Lawrenceville, led the effort in partnership with the school district and South Fayette Township Parks and Recreation. The Allegheny County Clean Air Fund donated a dozen types of trees, such as pine, hickory, magnolia and oak.

Tree Pittsburgh education coordinator Maeve Rafferty told students the oak trees could grow up to 80 feet tall.

“We’re going to be planting future forest here at Fairview Park, and hopefully you can come back and look at the trees that you planted today,” she said.

Small groups of students, each with an adult volunteer, chose a sapling, dug a hole, placed the root ball, refilled the hole with dirt, circled the sapling with mulch, and secured wire fencing around the plant to deter deer.

Ana Mares, 9, helped plant an American bladdernut. “It was so nice, getting outside and getting to plant trees,” she said.

Serenity Boyer, 9, said she enjoyed learning how to plant trees. “I loved it,” she said. “It was really fun.”

School principal Tom Kaminski said the activity enhanced the students’ environmental science education, which includes growing plants under lights inside the classroom.

“To actually see it in real life and what it looks like, I think it’s a valuable thing,” he said.

While the children clearly knew their science, many said their favorite part of the day was digging in the dirt.

Avery Orlando, 8, helped dig a hole for a serviceberry—one of the biggest saplings of the bunch. “It was fun to try to get the extra dirt out,” she said.

Austin Collavo, 9, who also liked digging, said his reaction to the activity was, “Wow, I've never planted a tree before.”

Ridhi Chouti, 9, said what she liked most about trees was “that they produce oxygen,” and she had the most fun dumping mulch from a bucket. “It’s so satisfying,” she said.

During an interactive discussion with the children, Rafferty explained how forests benefit wildlife and people.

“The trees that you’ll be planting today, they’re going to be good for the bees and the butterflies and the bats and the birds,” she said. “But you know what? Trees can also benefit us humans. You all come to this park a lot. You’re going to be very happy to have more trees here.”

Rafferty described a variety of environmental, health and social benefits of trees, saying they produce oxygen, improve air quality, filter water, provide wildlife habitat, grow food and more. Temperatures are about 10 degrees cooler under a tree, she said.

In about five years, the new trees will create 1 ½ acres of canopy in Fairview Park, said Jake Milofsky, the director of tree care and reforestation for Tree Pittsburgh.

Paula Willis, the township Parks and Recreation Director, thanked the children for planting trees.

“I hope you get to watch the trees grow while you continue to come and visit the park as you grow up,” she said.