Save Maumee’s 14th Annual
2-Day Earth Day was April 22 & 23, 2019
…behind Gunsaullus Industrial Services
LOCATION: 4325 Meyer Rd. Fort Wayne, IN 46806
This was Save Maumee’s seventh project, where about 85 people planted 600 trees along 1,055 linear feet (by at least 25 feet wide) of the Upper Trier (Paul Trier Ditch), on the north/west side of the ditch. This site is adjacent to our October 2019 tree planting site. CLICK TO SEE ADJACENT LOCATION
04/10/2019 Save Maumee Riparian Buffer Initiative began removing the invasive species that do not belong there, and prepared the site for tree planting!
By May, volunteers had planted 602 trees; 110 Burr Oak, 100 Swamp White Oak, 100 Swamp Chestnut Oak, 60 Black Cherry, 10 Black Walnut, 200 Sycamore, 10 Shagbark Hickory, and 10 Poplar (Tulip).
- Save Maumee Riparian Buffer Initiative: PREVIOUS PROJECTS HERE
- Trees we plant: CLICK HERE
- Why we remove invasive species before we plant trees: CLICK HERE
The entire project area for this Meyer Road Site on the Upper Trier Ditch is over 1,055 linear feet (requirement of 1,000 linear feet) by at least 20 feet wide. Majority of the site is over 30 feet wide, which added approximately, 21,100 square feet of riparian buffer, yielding .05 acre of additional forested corridor along the Trier Ditch. There appears to be a historic reservoir, underground storage tank, on site that has been capped. This historical zoned “industrial” area had a strip next to the stream that retained 20 years of growth. Asian bush honeysuckle, callery pear and other invasive species were removed previous to tree plantings. Our project selectively retained many of the Cottonwood trees, Box Elder, Dogwood, Willows (Salix exigua exigua or S. exigua interior), and Sumac (Rhus typhina) at this “Industrial Zoned” site.
Volunteers removed over 2,000lbs (>1 ton) of historic trash from the site owned by Jerome Henry (Hartzell Realty). This private property has a long-term rental agreement with Gunsaullus Industrial Services who currently runs a business on the land.
Save Maumee Riparian Buffer Initiative ordered & installed 602 bare root trees (requirement of 380 trees) in April and May of 2019, with invasive removal spanning April through June 2019. Plantings were (on average) 1 every 6 feet or so. These trees are estimated to reduce stormwater, by 35,518 gallons per year, to the adjacent stream. Our calculations of stormwater retention comes from the Environmenal Protection Agency (EPA) using current standard of 59 gallons/tree/year for the amount of average runoff reduced per tree. https:// www.epa.gov/soakuptherain/soak-rain-trees-help-reduce-runoff.
Previous to the plantings, the tree line was almost non-existent, with approximately 60 native full-grown trees on the entire lot. The site is zoned “heavy industrial” and included gravel and fill dirt. This site needed smaller trees (bare root) due to the industrial site having so much asphalt and gravel. Since 1-5 gallon potted trees were not used, we predicted a higher fatality rate of the smaller bare root trees, so we intentionally increased the odds of retaining the total sum planted through adding quantity. Donna Foster approved the change from potted trees to bare root trees in April due to timing of award letter and industrial soil with extensive gravel present.
Save Maumee volunteers are the success story of the Riparian Buffer Initiative. 813.8 hours were logged by approximately 90 different volunteers between April 1, 2019 – June 30, 2019.
Partnerships included advertising from Manchester University and at least 4 foreign exchange students from their Pharmacology Department, volunteered 4 hours of time each! We also had 4 Carriage House residents and 2 staff members volunteer their time over 2 days. Carriage House is important because they serve our community through working to overcome mental illness.
Save Maumee hosted our 14th Annual 2-Day Earth Day, to plant the trees at the Meyer Road site. Partnerships included bringing together our community to promote preservation and celebrate Earth! Fort Wayne Mayor, Tom Henry made a proclamation to kick off our event! We were listed on the official Earth Week Calendar that spanned Monday April 22 through Tuesday April 29th, 2019. This expansion allowed unification & engagement of our local public, private and grassroots sectors. Together we will shared the message of environmental awareness with Northeast Indiana.
