One maple. One oak.
One maple. One oak.
“You’re going to enjoy it in 25 years,” Saugatuck High School English teacher Mike Shaw told almost two dozen students on Tuesday, Nov. 22, in the middle of the wind-blown parking lot at Laketown Township’s Shore Acres Township Park, 6602 138th Ave. He made sure the trees lined up and alternated varieties down the snowy island between parking lot barriers.
One maple. One oak.
One maple. And finally, one oak.
“I think it’s going to look nice one day,” Shaw said, encouraging the students of the Saugatuck High School Interact Club who wielded shovels and rakes to plant eight trees in the area surrounded by the Felt Mansion, historic chapel, disc golf course and walking trails to the nearby Saugatuck Dunes State Park.
“It’ll take less time than you think,” added Eric Morrow of Great Lakes Ornamentals LLC, 2117 68th St., Fennville, who hauled the trees to the township park and showed the students how to properly plant the 10- to 12-foot sugar maples and red oaks.
The Interact Club known for its trips to the Dominican Republic to build a school, latrines and water filters for island residents, turned its tools and enthusiasm to adding the row of trees to spruce up the 40-acre park.
“We all love the state park as well as Shore Acres Township Park, and we thought that some native shade trees would make a nice addition out there,” Shaw said. “They’ll add to the beauty out there, enhance the parking lot area and offer more shade for people in the summer.”
Morrow volunteered to haul the trees from the Fennville business to the park. Ron and Sandy Collins paid for the trees, according to Shaw.
The township dug the holes ahead of time for the students and will maintain the trees.
