Photo courtesy of Kristin Trowbridge.
An Arbor Day planting was held in Central Park on April 26.
The planting was a collaboration between the Homewood Environmental Commission and the department of Parks and Recreation. Council member Nick Sims joined HEC members Kristin Trowbridge and Scott Rezek along with Parks And Rec staff to plant the 15 gallon blackgum in its new home beside the creek at Central Park.
"Several trees have died around the creek by the tennis courts, and this will help fill the void," said Berkley Squires, Parks and Rec/Public Services Director.
The HEC sought advice from Henry Hughes, former director of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and local tree expert.
"For places where there is a lot of activity, I prefer a tree with small fruit and one that tolerates poor and compacted soils," Hughes said. "The black gum, Nyssa sylvatica, is an excellent native choice."
The HEC sourced a 15-gallon Green Gable Blackgum from Hanna's Garden Shop on U.S. 280 which provided the tree at a discount.
"There are never enough blackgums," says Henry. "It’s a perfect urban tree, smaller in size than oaks, but big enough to have a presence as an overstory tree. Beautiful fall color and small fruits. It’s in the dogwood family, but will reach sixty feet."
The HEC is a group of nine volunteer residents representing the five wards in Homewood.
"We support the work of other environmental groups in the area, seek to educate our residents and city leaders on environmental issues affecting our community and to protect the native tree canopy that Homewood is valued for," said Kristin Trowbridge, HEC Chair.
The group is currently running a Get Past Plastics campaign which launched on April 21 at the Piggly Wiggly. For three hours, The Pig and the HEC handed out reusable totes in place of plastic grocery bags and took the pulse of residents' feelings toward single-use plastics in our city.
"These plastics such as throwaway shopping bags and styrofoam takeout containers, are used once before becoming windblown litter and polluting our parks, creeks and storm drains," Trowbridge said. "We've had a strong response supporting a petition that requests our Council to consider and implement restrictions on single-use plastics as other cities in the South are beginning to do. It's a long road, but the HEC has encouragement from a few Council members and has already collected close to 100 signatures."
The HEC will have a booth at We Love Homewood Day to speak to residents about plastics and how to preserve the beauty of the city and can sign the petition.
Their largest successes of 2023 included planting over 70 native trees throughout the city by way of Love Your Trees Day and receiving a 25% budget increase from the city to further their work.
The HEC is also responsible for Homewood's prestigious Tree City USA designation.
