Modern Woodmen volunteers help with tree-planting project

Thousands of trees will soon be planted across the nation – thanks to the efforts of Modern Woodmen of America employees who are helping get the young trees ready for the planting season. More than 200 Modern Woodmen employees are volunteering to wrap tree saplings to help with  Living Lands & Waters’ Million Trees Project. […]

Thousands of trees will soon be planted across the nation – thanks to the efforts of Modern Woodmen of America employees who are helping get the young trees ready for the planting season. More than 200 Modern Woodmen employees are volunteering to wrap tree saplings to help with  Living Lands & Waters’ Million Trees Project. This project helps restore the environment of the nation’s major rivers and their watersheds.  

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Modern Woodmen volunteers were wrapping trees Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 14, and were scheduled to continue the tree work today, Feb. 15, at Modern Woodmen’s Print, Mail and Distribution Center, located at 2015 2nd Ave, Rock Island.  Their goal is to wrap up 4,000 trees for storage and eventual planting. By Wednesday afternoon, the volunteers were well on their way to that goal having wrapped more than 2,300 trees. “It’s been going awesome. This has been a great event,” said Dan Breidenstein, vice president of East Moline-based Living Lands & Waters, who was helping coordinate the tree-wrapping event Wednesday afternoon. He added that every year Living Lands & Waters sets a goal of planting thousands of trees across the country. And they need a lot of help from volunteers to get those trees ready for planting. Many of them will be planted on Earth Day on April 22. (Go here to request a tree through the Million Trees Project.) This year, the group will send about 160,000 trees to more than 20 states across the country. Those trees will include bur oak, swamp white oak, pecan and red oak. But before that can happen, the tree saplings need to be wrapped up to keep the trees in a dormant state so they can be stored, shipped out across the country when needed and successfully planted. J.J. Majetic, marketing supervisor for financial services at Modern Woodmen and one of the event’s volunteers, said employees routinely volunteer to help worthy causes and do good work to help the community. Helping with the Million Trees Project is one of those causes that will help people, she added. “We’re really excited about the impact we’re making. …. We have a lot of people getting their hands dirty and having some fun,” Ms. Majetic said. Most of those volunteers were wearing blue T-shirts with the words “Project Plant-It” printed on the front. To help make the tree work more fun, organizers had loud music playing during most of each session. For instance, the song “YMCA” by the Village People was playing as volunteers wrapped up the young trees. Wednesday's work took place on a series of about 12 tables in a storage area at Modern Woodmen’s Print, Mail and Distribution Center. Each table had a group of eight volunteers wrapping up the red oak tree saplings. The goal centered on making sure the trees’ root system is kept wet because a dry tree is usually a dead tree. That work followed this routine: Wrap the trees’ root system in old newspapers, dip the paper and roots in water, and wrap out the wet root system in a plastic bag and seal the bag. To make the job fun, organizers set up contests to see which table could wrap up the most trees. During an afternoon session, Table One with 148 trees wrapped was declared the winner. In the next volunteer session, coordinators told the volunteers that the goal was to get each table to complete at least 179 trees. “We couldn’t do this without your help,” Mr. Breidenstein told the volunteers as they began the tree-wrapping work. He added that after the young trees are wrapped up, they are put in storage at Living Lands’ East Moline facility. In a few weeks, they will be sent out to people and groups that request to plant the new trees. “The Million Trees Project was initiated in 2007 to help further our mission to protect, preserve and restore the natural environment of our nation’s major rivers and their watersheds. Our mission is not only to clean up the riverways, but also to enhance the watershed by planting native trees and removing invasive plants,” according to information from Living Lands & Waters. The group has planted more than 1.9 million trees since the project began about 17 years ago. During Wednesday’s tree-wrapping sessions, many of the Modern Woodmen volunteers said they were having fun, and thankful to provide a helpful hand for a worthy project. One of the volunteers helping with the tree work was Emma Plocinski, 21, of Prophetstown, Illinois. “It’s all about taking care of our planet. It’s the most important thing we can do. … I feel super lucky they let me do this,” she said. Ms. Plocinski added that the secret to doing a good job of wrapping the trees is this: “Just pay attention to details and keep those roots wet.”