Message from Poynette Forester, Bruce Henderson:

I know it’s short notice, but I have a number of small trees to be hand planted on a couple of state properties this spring.  I am wondering if there is anyone interested in volunteering to plant trees either next Saturday morning (9:30 am on April 16th) or the following Sunday afternoon (12:30 pm on April 17th).  We have the seedlings here, and cannot store them indefinitely.

I have attached a map to the site.  It is at the Grassy Lake Wildlife Area.  This property is just north/ northwest of the small town of Otsego.  Otsego is located on State Hwy 16 on the east side of the county.  We’ll meet in a DNR parking lot at the end of a gravel access road.  The fire number right across the road is N4011 Erdman Road.  Most of the seedlings I have will be planted at this site.  There are a few others for one other site west of Poynette.  Depending on how many people are interested and on which days, I made divide the group.  Or, perhaps we’ll finish this project on Saturday and go to the other site on Sunday.

As far as what to bring or wear, I recommend the following:

• Sunscreen and eye protection
• Work gloves, preferably with some dexterity
• Durable clothes with long sleeves
• Bug spray for ticks, if desired
• Old 5-gallon bucket(s), if possible (I recommend the latter as we don’t have too many planting bags.  We’ll use these to carry the trees around the site.)
• Long handled round point shovel, if possible (I plan to bring all of the tree planting bars we have.  I still don’t have a tally on how many folks we’ll have, though.  We’ll only need or use the shovels if we have a lot of people.)

If people are interested in helping, please reply to me for planning purposes.  Let me know which day, or both, that you’re willing to help with.  Any help would be appreciated!  I find it rewarding work, and think that others might, too!