Rock Creek Valley Students Plant Grove of Trees

[Howard Hartman]

The Gazette
Melissa J. Brachfeld

Rock Creek Valley Students Plant Grove of Trees

Students and staff at Rock Creek Valley Elementary School went green earlier this month by planting a grove of trees on the property of the Aspen Hill school.

Photos: Brian Lewis⁄The Gazette Sarah Tate, Dillon Nguyen, Nohah Stitt and Adi Golan plant a tree at Rock Creek Valley Elementary School in Aspen Hill.

On a bright, sunny day, students, teachers and parent volunteers, with help from members of the Montgomery County Forestry Board and the Maryland Department of the Environment, planted 50 trees that are native to Maryland.

As the students placed the young saplings in their holes and covered them with dirt and mulch, Assistant Principal Karen Halverstadt watched with a smile.

‘‘It’s Rock Creek Valley’s day of tree planting and we’ve been donated 50 trees by the forestry board, which is a part of Montgomery County government and the state government,” she said of the May 15 event.

As part of the school’s outdoor education program, the trees were planted in the hopes of extending the wooded area on the side of the school ‘‘and to enhance our environment as well as help our Earth,” Halverstadt said.

Halverstadt noted that Rock Creek Valley Elementary recently received the Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education’s Maryland Green Schools Award for its efforts to conserve energy and implement effective environmental programs.

‘‘We’ve been working really hard to become a green school and be much more ecologically conscious so that we can do our effort and help our children learn to help be conscious of what is good for the Earth and what is not good for the Earth,” she said. ‘‘So, trees are very good for the Earth — they provide habitat for animals, they put oxygen into the air, they maintain the soil system. So, there’s lots of reasons why, as well as making our area more beautiful. We’re really glad to have this opportunity to help the Earth.”

Halverstadt also added that each class would have the opportunity to adopt a few of the newly planted trees by naming them and monitoring their growth over the years.

As he waited for the first grade classes to come out and plant its trees, David Plummer, a member of the Montgomery County Forestry Board and the Montgomery Soil Conservation District, said the trees were donated by Pepco and the holes were dug in advance by Stadler Nurseries in Laytonsville.

He said the 50 trees that would be planted included 10 different species.

‘‘Doing something like this is a real community effort,” Plummer said, noting that the forestry board holds two to four plantings at county schools each year.

Having participated in several tree plantings, he said the activity is always an enjoyable experience for everyone involved.

‘‘It’s always fun,” Plummer said. ‘‘The kids — it’s amazing that even the little ones are really interested in it. They’re a little too small to hold a shovel, but they really appreciate the opportunity to do something fun like this.

‘‘You know, really, it all plays into the Chesapeake Bay effort because even though we’re a long way from the bay, Rock Creek’s just down the road and Rock Creek flows into the Potomac River and the Potomac River feeds [into] the bay,” he added. ‘‘So, by having trees here to take up excess fertilizer or hold soil in place or whatever, that helps clean Rock Creek up, so we always try to emphasize that.”

During the plantings, Plummer said he always tries to emphasize to students how important trees are to the environment.

‘‘The point of the tree planting projects for schools is to get kids out and involved in a hands-on project so that they can realize how important trees are not just for oxygen and for beautifying their communities, but also for protecting soil, improving water quality, providing wildlife habitat — all the things that trees do,” he said.

A few feet away, parent volunteer Colleen Anderson, a resident of Aspen Hill, helped her group of first grade girls plant a tulip poplar.

As she watched the students grab handfuls of mulch to place around the base of the tree, Anderson said she thought it was a great idea to expand the school’s wooded area, which, in turn, would help to clean the air.

‘‘It’s good to teach the kids to do something to have a positive impact on the environment,” she said.