On Sunday afternoon, Tree Stewards, the Oak Bluffs Parks Commission, and the Island community celebrated Earth Day by planting 10 trees in Oak Bluffs’ Niantic and Nashawena parks.
More than 30 volunteers gathered to help as diggers, mulchers, waterers, stakers, and refreshment givers. Included in the plantings were oaks, sycamores, and lindens.
As an extension of the Oak Bluffs climate and energy advisory committee, Oak Bluffs Tree Stewards is a nonprofit organization. Its mission is to connect with community members to spread awareness about environmental issues, and provide opportunities for people to get involved to mitigate them.
“It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by climate change,” organizer and Co-founder of Tree Stewards Peter Meleney said. “We wanted to do things we felt we could do to make a difference, working on a local level.”
Sunday’s bare-root trees were purchased with donated funds, and selected and placed with the natural ecosystem and biodiversity in mind.
Meleney hopes to continue this tradition of planting trees, aiming to plant eight new trees at Healey Square this fall.
“There’s a lot of work going on,” Meleney said.
