Trees Forever Needs Your Help
 | Parkersburg, Iowa after the 2008 tornado | |
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An appeal by Valerie Thorne, Parkersburg Tree Board Chairperson & Community Volunteer from Parkersburg, Iowa
This fall, in Iowa and Illinois, thousands of trees are dead or dying or damaged.
The flood waters of the Missouri River have receded in western Iowa, exposing a barren landscape. The town of Mapleton is rebuilding after a destructive tornado struck the town this spring. Residents in eastern Iowa and western Illinois are still cleaning up from powerful wind storms that wreaked havoc across the countryside. Again this year, dozens of communities and hundreds of homes and farms have been ravaged by floods, windstorms, and tornados.
With your support, Trees Forever can help these communities and landowners recover and replant from these devastating natural disasters!
I know, because such scenes of destruction and devastation are all too familiar to me. On May 25, 2008, over one-third of my beloved town of Parkersburg, Iowa, was wiped off the map by an EF5 tornado with winds over 200 miles an hour. Homes were destroyed. Lives were lost. All that remained on the southeastern streets of town were a few straggly trees - stalks really - stripped bare of their leaves, limbs and bark. Our once-beautiful, tree-lined streets and green, shaded neighborhoods were left naked and exposed. It all looked so wrong!
After weeks of the initial cleanup and repair, my eyes and thoughts turned toward our tree-less streets. I knew we had to replant the hundreds of trees that had been destroyed or severely damaged. Our community so needed the sense of hope and beauty that trees and shrubs and flowers bring to a vibrant, lively and healthy community – along with all the many other important benefits that trees provide!
I needed and wanted to do something, but I had no idea how or where to start. It seemed like such an overwhelming task ahead of us!
With so many questions in my head, I reached out to an old friend whose town had been destroyed by a tornado a few years before. We shared stories of sadness, grief and hope. She then told me how they did it – how they replanted their community and made it even better than before. My friend, Shelly, finished by giving me one last bit of advice - possibly the best advice of all. “Call the folks at Trees Forever,” she said. “They’ll help you get it done!”
So that is exactly what I did.
I was connected with Meredith, one of Trees Forever’s many dedicated Field Coordinators – staff members who work directly with communities and landowners all across Iowa and Illinois. Meredith actually lives in a small town nearby, so she knew firsthand about our situation and was anxious to help us put our lives and our town back together.
Meredith, along with others from Trees Forever and their many partners, spent countless hours working with us on a plan to replant our community. The upside of the tornado – if there is such a thing – was that we had a blank slate upon which to start over. Meredith offered ideas and suggestions to help us do just that. She helped us form a volunteer tree board. She helped us work with city leaders to establish a tree ordinance to help guide our town’s replanting efforts. Meredith and her colleagues at Trees Forever helped us select tree species and other plants to best meet our needs today and into the future.
Parkersburg had participated in the Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program with Trees Forever in the past. Since so many things had now changed in our community, they helped us to re-Vision our future through another Community Visioning process.
The team from Trees Forever also helped us respond to the dozens of offers of volunteer help and free trees. They assisted us in planning and organizing several tree planting events over the next couple of years, rallying the community and other volunteers each and every time.
With the experienced help and on-going support of Trees Forever and their amazing staff, the Parkersburg Tree Board and the residents of Parkersburg have distributed and planted almost 2,000 new trees in our town since that fateful day in May 2008.
My friend Shelly from Fruitland was absolutely right. Trees Forever was there for us when we needed their help the most. The town of Parkersburg would absolutely not be where it is today without Trees Forever’s help and support!
In response to the many natural disasters in 2008 - starting with the Parkersburg tornado - Trees Forever launched the Recover, Replant & Restore Program, dedicated to helping communities and landowners in Iowa and Illinois recover and replant after a devastating natural disaster.
Trees Forever field coordinators are assigned to assist recovering communities with urban forest disaster assessment, cleanup and repair, project planning, volunteer coordination, planting projects, emergency funding, and more. And they don’t limit their efforts to just trees. They help restore other natural areas - like parks, trails, buffers, wetlands and such.
And, amazingly, they do all of this at no cost to the communities or landowners they serve!
But for Trees Forever to continue to offer this invaluable help to others in need, they need your financial support today. Each year they are called upon to assist with more and more recovery and replanting efforts across Illinois and Iowa.
Today, you can help your neighbors and fellow Midwesterners with these “green” disaster recovery efforts by helping Trees Forever continue to provide this valuable and much-needed support. Please join me in supporting Trees Forever and their Recover, Replant & Restore Program by sending a generous gift of support today.
You can rest assured that every dollar you send will be spent wisely and efficiently. For the past 22 years, Trees Forever has proven to be a trustworthy organization dedicated to preserving and improving our trees, woodlands and other natural areas.
I hope you never personally experience the devastation and despair that a natural disaster can bring. But when a disaster does strike, you’ll know that Trees Forever is there to help you and your community Recover, Replant & Restore.
Please help Trees Forever by sending them a generous donation today!