Natural Habitat Evanston plants trees at local schools, homes

Using a shovel’s blade to measure, Piper Rothschild mapped out the size of a round hole for a sapling. The hole needs to be twice as wide as the sapling’s root, she instructed the community volunteers around her. 

She then dug the tip of her shovel into the turf, used her body weight to push it in and began digging. Other volunteers joined her in the labor, and half an hour later, a new tree stood outside Evanston Township High School.

The tree planting event Thursday is a part of Natural Habitat Evanston’s annual spring planting. This year, the group plans to add 85 trees around ETHS, Evanston/Skokie School District 65 schools and in the 5th Ward, NHE lead Leslie Shad said.

NHE is a program under Climate Action Evanston — formerly Citizens’ Greener Evanston — that focuses on making the city greener and more wildlife-friendly.

“Trees are important because they draw up moisture from the ground and release it through their leaves to cool (the weather),” Shad said. “They also provide shade and windbreak and pick up stormwater, and all of that is really important for climate action.”

On Thursday, NHE planted trees of different species native to the U.S., including oak, hackberry and pecan. Shad said the group uses a variety to accommodate many native species of birds and insects and promote biodiversity.

Rothschild, a certified TreeKeeper with the Illinois nonprofit Openlands, said she volunteers several times a month during the spring to plant trees.

She said tree planting is an easy and inexpensive way to fight climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and improving air quality. And trees are “obviously beautiful,” she added.

“Everyone likes oak. They’re the keystone species, and they host a lot of moths and caterpillars and butterflies,” Rothschild said. “But my favorite really is the hackberry … It has a warty, punky bark. They grow and last a long time and provide a lot of shade.”

Ellen Fierer, a science teacher at ETHS, led about 30 students in her AP Environmental Science class to participate in the tree planting Thursday. 

Students learned about the importance of trees to the environment and biodiversity from Shad and NHE co-lead Allison Sloan. Then, with instructions from experienced planters like Rothschild, they took turns working the shovels and other gardening tools.

“(Tree-planting) connects back to things they’ve already learned, and they can participate in making what we talked about as important happen,” Fierer said. “ I think it’s good for them to get their hands dirty.”

Evanston residents joined the action too. Tanya Marquez, who heads the green team at the Evanston-based consulting firm ZS Associates, organized around 20 of her colleagues to try their hands at planting trees.

She said her team often collaborates with Evanston organizations like NHE, creating volunteer opportunities for employees to raise awareness for environmental issues.

“I don’t have a yard, so it’s nice to be able to get out, work in dirt and plant trees,” Marquez said, holding a rake she used to level the soil after her colleagues finished planting a tree. “This is a way that we can impact the earth and nature in a positive way.”

Shad said she’s glad to see many community members joining her and NHE in their mission. However, she said Evanston currently takes down more trees than it plants each year, meaning the city is behind on increasing its canopy.

“People will say ‘Well, we can’t plant our way out of climate change,’” Shad said. “But we can make some headway (for) reducing the heat impact on our citizens, as well as increasing biodiversity.”

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