At Indiana American Water’s Wellheads planting trees. At the table, workers trimmed the tree sap roots to get them ready for planting.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Flags that indicate what trees are being planted. The blue flags represented the dogwood trees. Witch hazel and hazelnut trees were also being planted.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Zach Shaw, left, and Tom Rodenbeck planting a dogwood tree.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
The field where the trees were planted with a second team of planters in the background.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Workers planting trees at the Indiana American Water’s Wellheads.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
Two separate teams working on planting trees.
Chey Smith | The Tribune
It was a sunny, breezy day for Seymour on Earth Day: the perfect weather for planting trees.
Indiana-based organizations joined forces to make Earth Day special in Seymour. Cummins Inc. and its Seymour Engine Plant (SEP), The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Indiana American Water (INAW) volunteers arrived at the Indiana American Water’s Wellheads near 7000 E Reddington St. at 9 a.m. Monday and planted until 4 p.m.
The work done on this Earth Day was the final steps in the water company’s goal of planting more than 35,000 trees and shrubs for the company’s wellhead reforestation program in Seymour and Shelby County. This is the first time that these organizations have come together for such a cause.
Mike Dunn, the Indiana director of Freshwater Conservation Programs at TNC, talked about how the team was planting dogwood, witch hazel and hazelnut trees. The trees one of the three groups of volunteers were planting were on the outskirts of the field, closer to the road. Closer to the wooded area, there were oak trees and hickory trees planted as well, but from a different time.
The trees being planted work “as a buffer,” said Dunn, to protect the wellheads. Since dogwood, witch hazel and hazelnut trees are considered small trees or large shrubs, they are incapable of damaging the wellheads if they were to fall, unlike the oaks and hickorys that will become much bigger.
INAW’s Southern Indiana Operations Manager, Brittany Montgomery, said that the purpose of planting these trees was for “protection long term.” Trees absorb more than just water; they absorb harmful chemicals, which prevents those chemicals from getting into the water.
In the spirit of Earth Day, it is important to know ways to get involved with keeping our world healthy. When it comes to keeping water safe, one example that Montgomery gave was to be aware of what you dump down your drains.
Just like the many volunteers that came out, you can get involved in similar replanting and restoration programs to help make a greener Earth.