By Bill Petzold
Editor
CARO — Over the past decade, Dutch Elm Disease and the Emerald Ash Borer have taken their toll on Caro’s trees — resulting in the loss of literally hundreds of shade-providing ash and elm trees that created a canopy over the city’s streets.
On Saturday, a group of volunteers from the Caro Rotary Club and the City of Caro took the first steps in replacing the fallen foliage.
Five groups of volunteers armed with shovels, buckets, stakes and twine set out from the Caro Department of Public Works building at 8 a.m. By 12:30 p.m., 60 new trees in three varieties — Redpointe Maples, Valley Forge Elms and Greenspire Lindens — had been placed at selected locations in Caro’s neighborhoods.
One group included leader Mike Laethem, Caro Rotary member and co-owner of Farm Depot, as well as members of Caro High School’s Interact club — the high school equivalent of Rotary — seniors Ann Starling and Crystal Messing and junior Andrea Messing.
Laethem explained that he’s helped with planting trees in Caro since joining Rotary years ago. This year marked the first tree planting effort in several years, however.
“I think it’s fun to go back and drive down the streets and say, ‘I planted that one, and I planted that one, and I planted that one’ — because we planted a lot of trees,” Laethem said. “I’ve been in Rotary for 21 years, so however many years they’ve planted trees in the last 21 years I’ve been involved.”
Laethem recalled the old adage that “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second-best time is now” — having planted trees in Caro both 20 years ago and now.
For soon-to-be graduates like Starling and Crystal Messing — bound for the University of Michigan and Central Michigan University, respectively — the event was a chance to make their mark on their hometown before they see where life leads them.
City manager Jared Olson is optimistic that the new tree-planting effort will take root as an annual city-wide volunteer project. Olson said that each group planted 12 trees, four of each variety.
“It worked out really well, no complaints so far, and we’re going to have a week of rain, which is fantastic for helping the trees settle and everything,” Olson said. “We hope to get this going. Once you start going past 60 trees, you’re going from 12:30 (being done) to 3 p.m. and you’re taking up an entire Saturday, and I don’t think we’re going to want to do that. So we’re going to try to raise some more volunteer support. We had five groups, and each group had three or four people, but if we could get seven groups to do 12 apiece, that’s the goal. Next year we might look at making it a little bigger. This is the first year that we did it. We wanted everybody to enjoy it, kind of get their feet wet with it, understand the process and what goes on and I think we accomplished our goal there.”
The City of Caro paid for the trees, approving $2,500 to cover the cost of the project — which Olson said came in under budget. Olson explained that the funding for the project was an unexpected surplus thanks to Act 51 money — through which the state reimburses local municipalities for maintaining state highways, such as M-81 (State Street) in Caro.
“One of the things they did this year is they passed a motion and increased our Act 51 funding unexpectedly,” Olson siad. “It was not accounted for or budgeted for, so we got a little bit extra money back from the State of Michigan … It went right into our local street fund, we were able to take $4,000 from our local street fund, utilize $2,500 for this program and still have a little bit left over. So we actually have a surplus for that account, along with being able to do this. Next year, we’ll probably look at writing grants. Rotary used to help us out by giving us $1,000 to pay for the trees, but this year we were looking to get it off and running and were able to do it with the state money that we got, which was fantastic.”
Olson explained that the city furnished the trees and supplies and Rotary helped coordinate volunteer efforts.
Caro Area District Library director Erin Schmandt helped plant trees with her husband Hans and sons Peyton and Qwilleran.
“Planting trees with Rotary as a family really made us work together to get the job done,” Schmandt said. “Hopefully, it will instill a sense of responsibility in the kids as they see us caring for others in the community, not just worrying about ourselves or our family unit. They understand that these trees will stand for years, providing shade and oxygen for all. They also get a sense of Rotary’s mission, ‘Service Above Self.’ ”
Mark Ransford of Ransford-Collon Funeral and Cremation Services knows first-hand the benefits of taking part in a community event like the tree-planting effort. Ransford began planting trees in Caro decades ago with his father, Dick Ransford, who helped out Saturday. The only difference between planting trees in the 1980s and 90s and now for the Ransford family, is that Dick and Mark Ransford got to take part in the event with Mark’s sons Ethan, age 7, and Cameron, 5.
“It’s rewarding to see a tanglible improvement to the community,” Mark Ransford said. “I’m proud to drive by trees I remember planting when I was my son’s age. You really do see the impact you make, and I don’t think you always get to see that in a lot of civic work. In a sense I think it connects the kids with the community, and they just had a ball. They thought that was the neatest thing — to plant trees and get their hands dirty.”
Olson joined the Ransfords and retired Tuscola County judge Wally Kent for the planting and said that Mark Ransford quoted the Greek proverb: “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”
“These trees aren’t being planted for this year or next year or the next five years. It’s going to literally take 15 years for these trees to be big enough to be part of the landscape of this community. The goal is to have more of that canopy feeling, and all the trees we planted are known for having really nice fall colors. Hopefully next year we’ll grow a little bit, because we have a lot of ground to make up.”