AIRPORT ENTRANCE ROAD TO GET INSTANT FOREST

By Ella Tyler

The morning of Saturday, Jan 27, more than 2,000 people will assemble along Will Clayton Parkway near Bush Intercontinental Airport to engage in two of the Houston community’s favorite activities – volunteering and planting trees. The goal of this ambitious Arbor Day celebration is to plant 13,000 loblolly pines and 7,000 hardwood trees, mainly oaks and elms. The trees will be in 5-gallon pots, and some of the pines are already 6 feet tall.

The project is a joint project of the Texas Highway Department, the City of Houston, its Parks & Recreation and Aviation departments, and the nonprofit agency Trees For Houston.

Each team of ten volunteers will be given 100 trees to plant. This will be less daunting than it sounds, according to Gary Woods, Trees For Houston’s NeighborWoods coordinator. “The ground will be tilled and each tree will be placed on its side by the time volunteers get there, so all the volunteer needs to do is dig the hole, pull the tree upright, back fill and mulch,” Woods said. “I timed myself, and I can plant a tree in ten minutes.”

This will be the largest volunteer tree-planting project in Houston history, Woods said.

Once the large trees are planted and volunteers leave, contractors will plant 10,000 seedlings and then a temporary irrigation system will be installed.

The project is the first to use the $22 million earmarked by US representative Ted Poe in last year’s highway appropriation bill. These federal funds are for landscaping existing highways, ones that are already built, and must be matched by $6 million in state funds. According to Dana Cote, RLA, Texas Department of Transportation’s chief landscape architect for the Houston district, 21 projects on area roads are planned to make use of this money.

Woods said that the airport project, Will Clayton Parkway between Lee road and IH 59, was chosen to be first because surveys performed by the Houston Airport System show that visitors’ feelings about a city are based on their first and last impressions.

Keep Houston Beautiful and the Humble Area Chamber of Commerce have agreed to be responsible for planting 5,000 trees each, and the Memorial Park Conservancy already has more than 700 volunteers pledged.

“We are glad to be able to use our groups of dedicated volunteers to help the Parks Department with other projects,” said Sally Tyler, the Conservancy’s executive director.

However, Woods said he is still looking for volunteers – teams and individuals. “Children of any age who are with their families are welcome, but others must be in groups with adult supervision,” he said. “Children can help backfill the holes and spread mulch.”

Volunteers are asked to bring shovels, gloves, and rakes. They should be at their sites by 8 am for training. Cars with four or more riders may park along Will Clayton Parkway but others should park in a designated section of Airport Lot D. The airport will run shuttles to take them to their assigned work sites. Unassigned volunteers should go to site N-A-1, just east of Lee Road, Woods said.

“The airport people have been wonderful to work with,” Woods said. “They are also providing lunch.”

As volunteers arrive, Cote said, they will have a preview of the completed project because the Highway Department, by then, will have finished planting the section of Will Clayton adjacent to IH 59.

The project required about six months to organize, Cote said, so tree planting will take place, rain or shine. For more information, see the city’s website or contact Gary Woods at garykwoods@sbcglobal.net or (281) 474-4507.