TREE TOGA 2016

The biggest and best Tree Toga yet!

Will your picture be with the crowd on April 25?

The Tree Toga 2016 volunteer team last Saturday, just before lift-off
Photo courtesy of David Aimone

TOP FIVE THINGS WE HOPE YOU’LL
TAKE AWAY from TREE TOGA 2016

1. THANK YOU! We couldn’t do it without you. Sustainable Saratoga’s Urban Forestry Project (UFP) offers a heartfelt thanks to all who made Tree Toga 2016 happen. A special thank you to all our enthusiastic volunteer planters & tree hosts, to the generous donors to our tree fund, to local businesses who made in-kind donations, and to our partners at DPW and throughout City Hall.

   

Volunteers listening carefully to tree planting instructions.
Photos courtesy of Dwight Pierre
See more of Dwight’s photos of the event here

 2. Tree Toga and the Big Mo. Momentum is building on our efforts to “preserve and expand” the urban forest. Key indicators are up: more volunteers; more trees planted; increasingly visible impact around town from trees we/you have planted; more media coverage (see Gazette and Saratogian articles); etc. Can you help us to keep the Big Mo on our side? Stay involved. Spread the word. Consider how else you can contribute (see #4 below).

3. Tree planting = short-term fun + long-term pride. Want immediate gratification? Bond with a team of planters and host on a spring morning. Enjoy the encouraging honks and hoots and hollers from people passing by. Snap a selfie of a job well done. How much fun was it? A third of this year’s planters were so pumped up that they gathered for lunch downtown to keep the afterglow alive.

Looking for a deeper, more enduring reward? Walk Saratoga’s streets and admire “your” trees and all the trees you and your fellow volunteers have added to “your” urban forest.Best of all, “your” trees and their impact will keep on growing, year after year. As will your pride.

   
Planters at Vanderbilt Terrace.
This year’s youngest volunteer.

Photos courtesy of David Aimone

 4. It Takes a Village to Grow a Forest – How you can help 365 days a year. Here are three ways you can make real impact on Saratoga’s trees.

  1. Join the tree watering team. Now. Our young trees won’t survive without water. Could be as easy as traveling with a 1-gallon jug. Or be part of a rotating crew to use our larger water tanks. Every drop helps. Adopt a non-hosted tree.
  2. Help locate future Tree Hosts. Work your networks and your neighborhood to find places that need trees and homeowners who want them. Finding good planting sites is probably our greatest, most time-consuming challenge. Can you help?
  3. Offer your skills and talents to the cause. The tree team can use more people with varied skills and interests. Short term and long term. Talk to us and see if your talents and availability fit one of our needs.
Email us at trees@sustainablesaratoga.org to get more involved.

5. Mark your calendars with these upcoming tree planting events. We are planning a smaller planting event early in October 2016. Stay tuned. And of course we hope to see you at Tree Toga 2017. Always on the “last Saturday in April.” Think of it as the final Derby tune-up.

   
Photo courtesy of Dwight Pierre
Photo courtesy of David Aimone