Bethel Park students help complete tree planting at Miners Memorial Park

Students in Bethel Park High School’s first-year environmental club helped complete a municipal Shade Tree Commission project at Miners Memorial Park.

They also learned some relevant lessons, including best practices for mulching, their main activity for April 21, the day before Earth Day.

“If you can just keep this in mind: three, three and three,” commission member Gregory Ament told the students in preparing them for the task at hand.

“So no more than 3 inches of mulch, the depth of it, keeping it 3 inches from the stem of the tree, or the root flare, so it doesn’t develop any kind of diseases,” he explained. “And then a 3-foot diameter from the stem.”

Prior to the workday, public works employees planted eight new trees, making a total of 26 added to the park since the fall. Commission members selected trees are native to the area and match the names of the streets in the adjacent Coverdale neighborhood.

The effort is part of the commission’s mission to create and maintain a tree canopy in the community.

“The bad trees were removed, the trees that were dangerous or rotted or diseased,” Jim Jenkins, another member of the commission, said. “And then we took a good look at where we planted the new trees, anticipating that as the new trees grow up, some of the older, more mature trees will be on the way out.”

He invited the students to return in 20 years or so to see what becomes of their efforts.

The environmental club started at the request of senior Gawin Hsu.

“He asked if I would want to help get this club going and sponsor it,” high school teacher Chris Durco recalled. “And I, of course, said yes, because I rarely say no to students.”

Club members began stepping up recycling efforts at the school, and eventually municipal staff members contacted them to work on applicable projects.

“Since then, we have not stopped doing things for the community,” Durco said, including marking storm drains to prevent water pollution and participating in Bethel Park’s cleanup day. “Hopefully, this will be picked up by the school board, and we will have a permanent club for next year.”

The Shade Tree Commission scheduled an Arbor Day planting for April 28 at Pine Tree Park, but it was postponed because of rain.

Planned is the introduction of chestnut trees with “18 seeds from two Pennsylvania trees that have been shown to be resistant to blight,” according to Drew Dowdell, the municipality’s director of special projects. Municipal staff members have attended Chestnut growing seminars at Penn State’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Management to learn how to ensure the trees thrive.

For more information about the Bethel Park Shade Tree Commission, visit bethelpark.net/government/boards-and-commissions/shade-tree-commission.