The Village of Franklin Tree Board is planning a street tree planting for next spring. This will be the first phase of the project to replace the trees that have died along our village streets.
Planting-site measuring took place this summer, and the proposed sites were marked with stakes. If a stake was placed on the public easement in front of your house, please call a member of the committee (listed below) to discuss having a tree planted at that site. This will involve your agreement to water it for the first year. The committee will ask where your water line is, to avoid planting the tree near it.
In the spring, we will need a crew to help with the plantings. Most of the volunteers who helped plant trees fifteen years ago have ‘aged out’, so new volunteers are needed to step up and take their place. The village backhoe will dig the holes, but able volunteers will be needed to place the trees, settle the roots, and cover them with soil. The trees arrive ‘bare root’ and weigh only a few pounds. The roots will have been gel-sprayed to prevent drying out, but they need to be kept damp while waiting to be planted, and then watered after planting.
Other less active jobs include picking up the trees at a drop-off site, transporting the trees to their sites on an open trailer, making sure each tree is in its proper planting site, and planting grass seed. Please get in touch with a tree board member to volunteer.
A group of volunteers, including Franklin Rotary members, took a training session from a DEC forester last spring and pruned a large number of the existing street trees. They will be starting to prune again as soon as the trees go dormant this fall. A training video is available if anyone would like to learn to prune trees and join the group.
The village board has a budget line for trees. With some of these allotted funds, dead and diseased trees were cut down and old stumps ground up. The tree board wants to save some money for trees that will need to be taken down in the future and their stumps ground. So the available funds can be supplemented in two ways. One is to donate a tree, perhaps in memory of someone or in honor of a birthday, anniversary or holiday. Each tree is approximately $100. A plaque will be attached to memorial trees. There are currently seventeen memory trees scattered around the village from former plantings.
Donations may be sent to Paula Niebanck, Village of Franklin, Box 886, Franklin NY 13775, or you may give it to a member of the committee. The other method is to match funding from a proposed matching grant. That way, each donation will be doubled.
So far, there have been donations for three trees, including prize money donated from the Blueberry Festival.
Together we can fill the holes in the urban forest that graces our streets, and make Franklin a more beautiful place to live, raise a family, shop and visit.
To join the crew, call:
Jane and Jerry Hebbard: 919-616-4872
Joan and Gary Orton: 607-230-4059