Spring is the time for planting, and TreeVitalize volunteers and community groups will be doing just that over the next several days in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

The project, organized by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Penn State Cooperative Extension, is employing a new method developed by Cornell University to dip bare root trees in a slurry hydrogel mix and bag them in plastic. The method keeps the trees moist for a week so that they do not have to be planted quite as quickly, and are easier to handle than a large balled and burlaped tree.

Volunteers met a shipment of trees at two locations, Philadelphia and Skippack, on March 15, to dip and bag the trees. There are nine species - honey locust, swamp white oak, tree lilac, crabapple, tatarian maple, Canada red chokecherry, hackberry, red maple and serviceberry.

This year's trees are all spoken for, but TreeVitalize will provide bare root trees again next year to groups that participate in citizen training courses.

TreeVitalize aims to plant more than 20,000 shade trees in neighborhoods and more than 500 acres of forested riparian buffers in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. The $8 million program targets neighborhoods in older cities, boroughs and townships where tree cover is below 25 percent. Tree cover refers to the percentage of land shaded by trees and shrubs.

DCNR oversees TreeVitalize and has partnered with: the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP); Aqua Pennsylvania; Philadelphia Eagles; PECO, an Exelon Co.; U.S. Forest Service; Pennsylvania Horticultural Society; Morris Arboretum; William Penn Foundation; Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association; and county and local governments.

For more information visit www.treevitalize.net. Communities that want to learn more about citizen training should contact Mindy Maslin at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society at 215-988-8884.

3/18/2005