The city of Elkhart is ramping up its community tree planting efforts. This Saturday, community volunteers will work with city staff to plant about 100 trees along Oakdale Drive, Southdale Drive and Christian Avenue.
“Anybody can plant a tree, and we’d love to teach you, if you don’t know how,” said Annie Klehfoth, environmental projects coordinator for the Elkhart Environmental Center.
She said those interested in helping can register on the Environmental Center’s website or just show up between 10:00 a.m. and noon. Volunteers can park at Child & Parent Services.
“So far, we’ve seen a real passion from the community to come out and help us plant these trees, which makes a huge difference because the more people we have helping out, the faster these trees go in.”
Planting sessions are also scheduled for August 8 and August 15 at other locations.
It’s all part of Elkhart’s Trees for the Hart initiative. In 2024, the city was awarded $1 million dollars in federal funding, with the goal of planting at least two-thousand trees by the end of 2027.
Klehfoth said about 200 trees have been planted, so far. "Unfortunately, there was kind of a pause in the program, so the funding was kind of in limbo," Klehfoth explained. "It got paused. It got turned back on. And so, we kind of had a late start in planting, and the program really picked up this year."
She said there was also a slight delay in getting trees, since much of the inventory was used to replace trees lost to wildfires.
Still, Klehfoth is confident that the city will be able to reach its goal. “We’re going to try and hit our goal of 450 by September 1 and then, we’re going to try and do another 600 before the year is out and then, we’re going to pick up and do another thousand next year. And, so far, it’s been going pretty well,” Klehfoth added.
