Saturday, March 29 – Waldo
An overcast morning lightened by the good cheer of the volunteers. We planted twenty-two trees – bald cypresses (Taxodium distichum), dahoon hollies (Ilex cassine), Shumard oaks (Quercus shumardii), and mulberries (Morus rubra) – at two locations in Waldo: along busy US Highway 301 near the entrance of Waldo RV & Motor Sports Park, and along a quiet street in a nearby neighborhood.
Saturday, February 8 – Lake Alto Park, Waldo
We returned to the site of January’s Arbor Day planting to add twenty-five more trees – American holly (Ilex opaca), dahoon holly (Ilex cassine), live oak (Quercus virginiana), Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii), scrub hickory (Carya floridana), southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), spruce pine (Pinus glabra), and fringetree (Chionanthus henryae)– to locations around the park.
Saturday, January 18 – Lake Alto Park, Waldo
Our celebration of Florida’s Arbor Day (January 17) began at 11 AM with opening remarks by community leaders and an official Arbor Day proclamation by Alachua County Commissioners, followed by a reading of a short poem honoring our arboreal kin, and a presentation by Alachua County Arborist Lacy Holtzworth. Afterwards, we planted fourteen Florida maples (Acer floridanum) on the periphery of the Park’s parking lot. Other Arbor Day activities included an “Ask an Arborist Tree Tour” given by professional foresters, horticulturalists, and arborists, and a “Walk and Talk Tour” of the nearby Longleaf Ecological and Forestry Society Preserve.
Photographs by A. Ewert-Harpold, T. Harpold, C. Houder, D. Jordan, H.H. Rays, S. Xie, and D. Zhu. / CC BY