New trees planted at community park near Utah Olympic Oval
Oct 08, 2024 10:24AM ● By Tom Haraldsen
Volunteers plant trees at Kearns Oquirrh Park as part of the Tree Utah project on Sept. 13. (Tom Haraldsen/City Journals)
Urban legend has it that when pioneers first arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, only one lone Cedar tree was found standing. While that has been disproven and trees were found in the Avenues area of Salt Lake City, for example, it is true that the valley was largely devoid of many trees.
Amy May is making sure cities and towns will never have to fear that again. As executive director of Tree Utah, she runs the nonprofit organization that since its founding in 1989 has helped to plant over 400,000 trees around the state.
“Our mission is to improve Utah’s quality of life for present and future generations by enhancing the environment through tree planting, stewardship and education,” the organization’s website states. Case in point: a planting of trees at the Kearns Oquirrh Park near the Utah Olympic Oval on Sept. 13. A group of volunteers, including employees from Lucid Software and Creek Road Dental Care, planted 15 trees.
“We are planting trees along this walkway around the park,” May said. “This is largely used as a sports field which means there aren’t usually very many trees. We really wanted to make an effort to do something special in Kearns. So we’ve been working in conjunction with the county and community members. We wanted to get trees growing in on the perimeter of this pathway so that it’s shaded and can eventually provide a lot of protection from the sun and the heat in the summer.”
May said the Kearns trees are “a variety of tough trees. The soil here is particularly hard. It’s all infill, and different in certain locations, so one hole we dig might be different from the next. Every single tree is selected just to be the toughest it can be and do really, really well in Salt Lake County soils.”
The trees were a mix of oak, elms, sycamores and iron wood. She said where there isn’t a lot of other tree cover to start with, new trees take a little more energy to get going. “Once we have some trees established, the other trees that go in near them will do better,” she said.
Volunteers also added soil amendments like biochar to help create root systems underground. These latest trees are in addition to previous plantings from Tree Utah in the park, which was developed and improved by Salt Lake County over the past four years.
Tree Utah depends largely on volunteers from the community. May said the organization does plantings mostly in April, May, September and October when weather conditions are good for both the trees and their planters. Before each planting, May and her coworkers walk through every location–coordinating watering, recommended distance between trees and protecting underground watering systems and mowing patterns. The organization purchases the trees and accepts donations for ground nutrients and maintenance products.
“We optimize those four months for planting, then focus on fundraising and education during the other times of the year,” she said. “We can sometimes continue planting into November and December depending on the weather.”
She invites everyone, “whether you’ve got children with you, or whether you’ve planted before or have not. There’s a job for everyone. We’ll find a role for everyone to play in the planting. We’re really here to grow the community around trees and the understanding around them, and really making sure that what we’re planting, we’re planting for success.”
Tree Utah was actually started by a journalist, former Salt Lake Tribune editor Pepper Provenzano who now lives and writes a blog in Arizona. The nonprofit is governed by a Board of Directors. Information about the organization and dates for upcoming events can be found on its website at treeutah.org. λ