By: Siri David

In the beginning of November some friends and I went to Crosby farm in Saint Paul. While we were there, we planted trees. The organization we do this with is called Widji Leaders. Widji is a YMCA summer camp that focuses on getting kids into the environment while, teaching them life skills. They lead backpacking all over the western part of the country and canoeing trips all over the Boundary Waters and Quetico. During the winter they want to keep kids outside and teach them how to help the environment.

We met at Crosby Farm at nine and worked until 12. We planted a total of 60 trees in the forest.

They shared a step-by-step process of how to plant them and how each step will help the trees grow. We covered the trees in a biodegradable plastic to protect them from animals who will eat the growing trees. On top of the plastic we would put mesh so that way birds wouldn’t land on the plastic and fall inside and get stuck.

We were also taught about the environment down by the Mississippi River. We learned about how the water affected soil and caused it to become a lot softer. That area of land also goes through a lot of harsh weather including flooding, rain storms, hail, and intense winters. This means that the trees that are growing have to go through a lot to survive, and not all of them do.

There are so many steps you can take to help better the environment in your community. There are so many organizations that do volunteer work where they clean up areas that have larger amounts of trash or areas that are just clearly struggling more within the environment. Along with that there are also places you can volunteer to help plant trees like I did. Doing these tasks might not seem like a big deal, but if you look at where our environment is heading you realize anything can help.