Tree Board Spring Tree Planting
 | Author:
Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board Chair
Townsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club |
Tree Board Spring Tree Planting
Patrick Plantenberg
Tree Board Chair
The Townsend Tree Board received a 2023 Graymont’s Carbon Reduction Fund (GCRF) Grant to purchase and plant trees in the 2024 tree planting season.
The Townsend Tree Board and Tree Board Advisory Council are a group of volunteers living in Townsend and Broadwater County Montana. The Tree Board was formed in 1990. It has been almost completely managing the Townsend community forest since 2004. This includes tree inventories, tree pruning and removals, tree planting, and tree care including spraying for insects and diseases for over 1,000 public trees. The city does not have a community forester or forestry department.
City funding for the Tree Board has been sporadic over the years and the Tree Board has depended on sales of trees to private citizens, private tree planting services, private tree pruning and removal services, donations, and grants to raise enough money to fund tree purchases and other tree management expenses each year. The average age of most of the volunteers doing 85% of the work for the Tree Board is 75 years. These volunteers have slowed down over the years, not being able to work the long days volunteering that they used to do. As a result, more days have been needed to raise the money needed to pay for trees and less work has been done maintaining existing trees. The GCRF funding means that the aging volunteers can spend more time caring for (i.e. pruning, watering, and spraying for disease and insects) existing trees in the community forest.
The Tree Board thanks Graymont for its help in improving the community forest in the Townsend area. The Tree Board looks forward to working with Graymont’s Indian Creek Plant this coming spring unloading, potting, and planting trees.
