People Love To Plant: Growing Participation Helps Conservation Group Boost Native Trees and Flowers

TOWN & COUNTRY

Autumn is known for the harvest, but it’s also planting season. The leaders and volunteers of the Tri-County Conservationists, local chapter of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, are leading the way with frequent tree and wildflower planting projects. At the same time the chapter is true to the Reaper’s role in spooky season with its relentless commitment to removing invasive plants.

TCC was formed about a year after the end of the pandemic when several Chapel Hill residents who had been working as individuals and families to remove invasives and plant natives around their own homes and nearby greenways combined their efforts to collaborate under the aegis of the NCWF.

In particular they have been battling wisteria, a pernicious and fast-growing invasive that can kill trees and take over yards or green spaces in just a few seasons. With limited numbers in its formative years the chapter focused on removal. With the growth in participation in the last year or two TCC has been able to mount more ambitious replanting projects, especially pollinator meadows and pocket forests.

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Most volunteers live in Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough. True to its name there are also quite a few volunteers from all around Orange County, Mebane and southeastern Alamance County, as well as Pittsboro and northeastern Chatham County. Durham and Raleigh each have their own chapters.

“We collaborate with quite a few local and area organizations, including Chapel Hill Parks & Recreation, Triangle Land Conservancy, and Friends of the Lower Haw,” said Laura Kiefer, chapter president. “Over the past year or two we’ve planted 11 oases with a total of 500 native trees and shrubs. People love to plant, and we would love to have more people join our events!”

TCC volunteers plant trees and native plants in collaboration with other area conservancy groups, including Friends of the Lower Haw. Photo courtesy of TCC.

The chapter is well organized. There are 16 chapter leaders who plan and coordinate activities. Five of them constitute the chapter’s board for administrative purposes. TCC has a data base of several hundred volunteers; there is not a formal ‘membership’ as in dues-paying. Rather the emphasis is on participation, which can vary for any given activity range from a handful to 50 or 60 for the larger projects.

Just because a tree or flower is native does not mean it’s set and forget, the fledgling forests need tending, especially when drought struck. “It basically stopped raining last September,” Kiefer related. “We organized people to adopt an oasis, to go and check on the trees every week or so, provide water, and remove invasives. We lost quite a few trees that we had planted, but more than half survived. It was a heroic effort.”

Phase II of the oasis program will soon be getting started. TCC received a grant from NCWF for 500 more trees to create five new oases and to replace the ones that succumbed to the drought.

In addition to grants for specific projects from the statewide organization, TCC also receives donations from individuals and conducts fundraisers. The biggest are annual native plant sales held at Wild Birds Unlimited at 1806 MLK Blvd.

Most of the activities are family friendly, and children especially like the planting projects. TCC has added a significant youth program with the formation of a Venture crew. Venturing is open to youth 14 to 20 of all genders, and is affiliated with Scouting America but with more of a vocational emphasis than regular scout troops.

The TCC chapter and local volunteers will be removing invasive plants, installing fencing, and planting native plants October through February in Triangle Land Conservancy’s Brumley South Preserve. To view and register for these events, see the calendar of events on the NCWF website here. Contact Kara Solomon, NCWF chapter coordinator, at kara@ncwf.org for more information about the chapter, venturing crew, or upcoming events.