Left to Right: Clayton Whitson, Marissa Skaggs, Tim Lanane, Denise McKee, and Jessica Bastin at the Madison County Bicentennial tree distribution day ribbon cutting ceremony.
Mark Butler
Volunteers help get things ready for the Madison County Bicentennial tree distribution day.
Mark Butler
Project logo designs submitted by local high school students.
Submitted photo
Left to right: Denise McKee, Scott Reske, Marissa Skaggs, Tim Lanane, Clayton Whitson, Mark Thacker, Jessica Bastin, Carol Hanna, Amy Turner, and Jo Scott at the Madison County Bicentennial tree distribution day.
Mark Butler
Mary Banning (l) and Logan Vieck (r) help distribute trees at tree distribution day.
Mark Butler
Madison County Bicentennial tree distribution day on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at Pendleton’s Falls Park.
Mark Butler
Josh Selig moves a tree at the Madison County Bicentennial tree distribution day.
Mark Butler
Bicentennial Tree Planting project kicks off
By Brady Extin | The Times-Post
PENDLETON — Step one of the Madison County Bicentennial Tree Planting project took place Oct. 24 in Falls Park.
The project, co-
sponsored by Madison County MS4 Stormwater Quality Partnership and Anderson Rotary Club, involves the planting of 200 trees across a dozen Madison County communities and other locations to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the county.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, trees were either picked up or distributed to participating communities — Alexandria, Anderson, Chesterfield, Edgewood, Elwood, Frankton, Ingalls, Lapel, Markleville, Orestes, Pendleton, Summitville and unincorporated Madison County.
“We were trying to come up with ideas, and the thought of trees came up and how much they help us with stormwater management,” said Denise McKee, Pendleton Planning and Zoning Administrator and county stormwater partnership member. “We just thought with the bicentennial coming up that it would be great to plant some.”
The stock of 200 trees cost a total of $8,500 and was fully funded by the Madison County Bicentennial Committee.
According to McKee, the project has three main goals.
“To engage and educate the members of our communities, the importance of enlarging and maintaining our tree canopy to enrich and beautify our communities through the many benefits that trees provide our environment, including the help with stormwater management.
“To inspire and provide opportunity for our youth to partake in the project.
“To provide flexibility in the project to allow each community to be creative in selecting planting sites, fill tree canopy voids as desired, highlight areas with cultural significance, and craft a personal touch for their respective community plantings.”
The trees can be planted wherever needed in each community, whether that be public or private locations, schools, libraries, parks, streetsides or residential properties.
“We wanted to give them that flexibility,” McKee said. “They can pick where it seems to be fit for their community.”
While the locations were up to each community, they had to select the site, call in 811, coordinate a team to pick up the trees, coordinate a team to plant the trees, and plug each tree into a tree collector map.
After all the trees are planted by Nov. 10, the collector map will allow organizers to see and locate where all 200 are planted across the county.
Each community could request as many trees as it wanted.
The tree count by entity ended up being: Anderson, 45; Pendleton, 35; Madison County, 32; Elwood, 26; Ingalls, 25; Alexandria, 15; Orestes, 5; Lapel, 6; Chesterfield, 3; Markleville, 2; Edgewood, 2; Summitville, 2; and Frankton, 2.
In Pendleton, McKee said, most of its trees “are/will be planted at the Fall Creek Golf course where we lost several trees the past few years as well as Grove Lawn Cemetery as well as to help replenish lost tree canopy in the areas surrounding the Pendleton downtown.”
Local high school students were also involved in the project and helped create the project’s logo.
Eleven logo entries were submitted by digital design students at Pendleton Heights, with Kennedy Quinn’s being selected as the final project logo. All 11 designs were highlighted in the Benefits of Trees project flyer.