Community brings a breath of fresh air to Plains

A little bad weather couldn't stop about 25 people from leaving their mark on the main street in Plains Saturday.

The 25 people spent the afternoon planting 21 trees along about a quarter-mile stretch of the road underneath dark and threatening clouds.

“We're hard-core,” said Sandi Lane of the Plains Woman's Club and one of the organizers of the event. She said she was really impressed with the turnout and thinks there would have been even more if the weather was a little nicer.

Lane said that the idea of planting the trees started as a Plains Woman's Club event, but snowballed into involving the whole community. “This was just such a big deal,” Lane said. She said it was important to see the town's support for the project and hearing the people honk and seeing them wave as they drove down the street meant a lot to her. “This was about the town,” she said. Lane said 15 of the 21 trees were donated from local businesses and individuals.

The people who came out to plant the trees came for different reasons. Judy Woolley said she still can remember coming to Plains 27 years ago and seeing the large trees that lined the street.

“It was just gorgeous,” she said. Woolley said the trees added a lot to the town and she was sad to see them go. “I've missed those trees ever since. It's nice to get them reestablished,” she said. “It beats sitting inside,” said Josh Eitelberg, one of three Troop 46 Boy Scouts who came out to plant the trees. “We could use the exercise,” Scout Charles French added.

Before planting the trees, Rick Jennison, a certified arborist from Ronan, taught a two-hour class about planting and pruning trees at the Montana Native Nursery. Michele Furry, the president-elect of the Woman's Club and owner of the nursery for eight years, said the class was fun and educational. “We loved it and we learned a lot. Even being nursery people we learned a lot,” she said. Jennison said no matter what Furry learned, it doesn't do any good in the classroom. “I can tell you in the classroom, but if you don't do it, you don't get it,” he said. “It has to be hands on,” he added, as he packed down the dirt around a newly planted maple tree.

The red oak, ash, locust and crab trees the group planted all had an inch and a half thick stem to help ensure that they survive. Lane said the thickness also means that it won't take too long for the tree's to start looking good and adding to the town. She said in about five years, the trees will really start to look good, but Jennison disagreed with her estimate. “I think they start looking good almost immediately, but I'm a tree guy. I'm prejudice,” he said.

Jennison said no matter how good the tree looks, it doesn't really matter unless people take care of them.

He said the nearly four hours the group spent planting the trees would be a waste of time unless people take care of them. If not, they will die. “It would be like taking a newborn baby home to a vacant house,” he said. Lane said the Woman's Club is thinking about starting an adopt-a-tree program for the newly planted trees.