Shrub Planting—A Community Effort

Mountains can be moved when a community works together. In this case, mountains of dirt were moved to make way for planting 80 new shrubs.

This fete took place on September 15th and 17th as a part of the 9/11 National Day of Service. Volunteers from local service clubs and the UW-Platteville Baseball Team coordinated their efforts to add shrubs along the trail from behind Menard’s toward Belmont.

The project got under way on the 15th when Myron Tranel made 80 three-foot deep holes with his backhoe. Clay Shaffer then headed up 35 to 40 members of the UW-Platteville Baseball Team, along with their coach Chad Harris, in moving the shrubs from the PCA shed to the holes. The team filled five-gallon buckets with water and placed them in the holes and prepped the sites by setting up protective screening and stakes.

Thanks to their prep work, Saturday’s volunteer crew could focus on planting.

“Everything went smoothly,” said Terri Ellis, a regular on the Tuesday morning PCA crew. On Saturday the 17th Terri joined about 20 other volunteers in putting the shrubs in the ground.

Many thanks to the volunteers from the Platteville Rotary Club, Optimists, Kiwanis, PCA and UWP Baseball Team. Your work in completing this momentous task makes it possible for trail walkers and bikers to enjoy the growth and beauty of the shrubs.

shrubs before planting, species include: serviceberry, silky dogwood, nannyberry and ninebark