The Village of Cleveland, the local Lions Club, and a representative from the Restoration of Our Trees – Sheboygan group gathered Saturday morning at Dairyland Park to celebrate the planting of nearly 30 trees in the park.
These trees were made possible thanks to a $10,000 grant from the ROOTS organization.
Tony Fessler, who was the founder of the group, says that they are a subsidiary of the Rotary Clubs in Sheboygan County.
While they typically focus on tree planting in Sheboygan County, Fessler tells Seehafer News, “We were approached by the Lakeshore Natural Resources Partnership, one of our environmental partners, to come up here because they were doing work in this area…My understanding is we do have a political connection between Cleveland and Sheboygan County, and that was enough for us to come in and lend a hand.”
Stacy Grunwald, the Director of Public Works for the Village, says that they have been focused on not only dealing with the dead and dying ash trees but also a plan for forestry in their community.
“We were over-invested in certain species of trees,” she explained. “So with the assistance of ROOTS, we were able to remove trees that were ill or dead, and able to plant new trees, and a greater diversity of trees than we had before.”
She called the partnership with ROOTS a “magnificent joint effort to improve the community.”
Village President Jake Holzwart noted that all three parks will be addressed, but Dairyland Park was the perfect place to hold the celebration Saturday morning.
“This park was basically a blank canvas around us,” he noted. “It’s used for events it’s used for parking for events, there’s a car show here…but it never had any shade. So we decided to invest the money in the trees out here.”
For more information on the ROOTS organization and to learn how you can get involved, visit ROOTSWI.org.
