Groups of high school students have been deployed throughout the south suburbs in recent days, spending some time outside the classroom and getting a bit dirty through some hands on learning while helping the environment a bit in the process.
On Tuesday outside Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, students from Hillcrest and Tinley Park high schools went about the task of planting a white oak they named Jordan. The famous Chicago Bull wore number 23, which corresponds to the year the tree was being planted.
It was a fun endeavor for Avaion Viverette, 18, of Hazel Crest.
The Hillcrest senior helped a worker from The Nature Conservancy gently lower the sapling’s root ball into the hole that was about two feet deep.
“It was neat to see how we had multiple people to help with the tree. People breaking the dirt up and people helping lift up the tree, ” Viverette said. “Everyone came together with different skills.”
TNC workers from this country, Brazil, Argentina and Kenya later told students how some had different careers — in law and food service, for example — before they decided to work helping the environment.
They also discussed a common problem.
“You can see there’s a universal problem with global warming. And there also are things like poaching, pollution, that affected them differently,” said Viverette.
Addison Weed, 17, of Tinley Park, a junior at Tinley Park, said she learned “how there are different climates in different parts of the country” and “there are different types of trees to use in the environment that can help us.”
“It’s almost a circle of everything,” she said.
The circle on May 2, included what TNC worker Shane Tripp called “the tree dance.”
Students — Weed included — literally danced around the tree, using their feet to push mulch down into the dirt, ensuring water gets down to the thirsty roots.
It’s important to not have grass up against the trunk as grass roots take water from the tree roots.
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The sapling will need 10 to 20 gallons of water every week in order to grow. Students will be in charge of watering through the remainder of the school year. This summer, maintenance crews will take over.
“It will take 50 years to get big and it should last another 50 after that,” Tripp said. “People say it’s a gift to future generations planting a tree. You don’t get to enjoy all the awesomeness of this tree, but the next generation will.”
This gift, a white oak, is the state tree of Illinois.
“Lots of critters, bugs, birds will find food and homes in this tree once it gets big,” Tripp told the students. “It’s good to use native plants for your landscaping. Green space is good for your mental health.”
The tree was planted along the south side of the building facing 175th Street.
Tripp oversaw the planting process, making sure the hole was wide and deep enough.
He smiled watching students who quickly learned that digging a hole in our clay-rich soil is not as simple as it may look on TV shows.
“I will say that with all the grass roots, breaking through that top layer, it was pretty dense,” said Kathy Nguyen of TNC, who is skilled with a shovel.
Steel fencing was placed around the tree to dissuade hungry deer from munching on the tender branches.
A plaque near the tree says it was planted in recognition of Earth Day 2023 “celebrating people, nature and partnerships.”
Watching the students plant the tree were environmental investigation teachers Kris Cardinal of Hillcrest, and Geri Wittman, of Tinley Park.
“We’ve been working with the Nature Conservancy, especially at the Indian Boundary Prairies in Markham, throughout the year,” Cardinal said.
“We’ve done several activities with them this year. Our monarch butterfly release. We’ve done some seed harvesting,” Cardinal said. “They reached out to us to donate a tree for our partnership.”
TNC representatives were on hand a week earlier for a similar effort outside Tinley Park High School. And groups of students at other area high schools got in on the act throughout the area as well.
At Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, a tree planting expedition was a chance to get off campus while helping the environment.
A group of 17 students from Eisenhower’s Environmental Club traveled to The Meadows Golf Club of Blue Island golf course on Arbor Day to do plant trees near Meadow Lane. The 30 trees included bald cypress, northern red oaks, pagoda dogwoods and black cherry.
The trees were provided by the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, which was awarded a grant from the NFWF Chi-Cal Rivers Fund for 700 trees to be planted throughout the region in 2023 and ’24.
“It was hard work but so fun to plant with my friends,” said junior Yesica Campos. “I like that we got involved in the community and helped the environment.”
Kristina Probst, who sponsors their club and teaches chemistry, said students also learned just how helpful trees can be with help from Blue Island resident Val Kehoe, who works for the University of Illinois Extension. Representatives from the Morton Arboretum also attended.
“Having tree coverage can keep the city’s temperature down just by covering the roads a little more,” Probst said. “I don’t think they always connect the dots, so it was nice to have that education sort of brought to them so they understand it’s not only good to help with the carbon cycle but also helpful to have for the community and city.”
The club also maintains flowers and vegetables in a greenhouse on campus, where Kehoe also helps out.
Rather than marking Arbor Day, an April 17 planting effort by students from Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights was part of their inaugural day of service. The group, including football players and members of the Generation Green Kids club, planted 15 trees with help from the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, Morton Arboretum and school staff and administrators.
The school is working toward arboretum status, which would mean they had a variety of trees, shrubs and some of their grounds would be open to the public “so they could enjoy the natural environment we’re creating,” said Linda Hansen, vice president of Ministry and Mission for the school.
They plan to work with the Arboretum on plantings for the next three to four years, she said.
“We are looking forward to continuing to care for our environment and to make our grounds pleasing and welcoming for our community,” Hansen said.
Steve Metsch and Janice Neumann are freelance reporters for the Daily Southtown.