More trees to be replanted as part of recovery efforts following Memorial Day tornadoes

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest community improvement nonprofit organization, already has planted 95 trees in Sinclair Park and at some homes as demonstration plantings alongside its local affiliates Keep Ohio Beautiful and Keep Montgomery County Beautiful, following the devastating tornadoes that hit on Memorial Day 2019.

Now, Keep America Beautiful is bringing its RETREET program back for another round of planting on April 30th.

The group is leading a team of agencies and companies in the Miami Valley working to make this recovery happen.

“In celebration of Arbor Day, we will kick off our neighborhood efforts in earnest where we will plant up to 175 trees at 100 home sites on that Saturday. That’s our goal for the day and we aim to hit it,” said Grady McGahan, Director of RETREET at Keep America Beautiful.

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The group will move west to east along the path of the EF4 tornado starting in Brookville, then headed east to Clayton, Perry Twp. and then Trotwood on April 30.

Then, over the course of the next 18-24 months the organization will continue hosting plantings from the west to east, eventually ending in the impacted area near Beavercreek and Riverside.

“Over the course of the campaign, we hope to plant 1,000 trees along the impacted area, path of the tornado from west to east,” said McGahan.

The trees will be 8-10 feet tall when they are planted. It will be a biodiverse mix of trees that McGahan said will bolster the urban forest that was most heavily damaged in the storm.

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“Of Everything that’s destroyed in a natural disaster, it’s actually the trees that take the longest to replace. You can rebuild houses and roads and other infrastructure, but you can’t rebuild an 80-year-old oak tree,” said McGahan.

RETREET said the impact of this will last for generations to come.

Rap Hankins, who is a resident of Trotwood, said he home was devastated by the tornado outbreak on Memorial Day 2019.

“That night, I heard a tornado siren and thought nothing of it. Then, I turned on WHIO and realized the tornado was right on the corner. And I went to the basement, and it felt like a freight train went over my house,” Hankins said.

When he came out of his house, he said, “every tree in my yard was gone.”

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“What RETREET is doing and what the Dayton Foundation is doing and all those have who have funded these efforts are doing, they’re actually bringing normality back to our region and they’re helping us heal for every tree that is planted,” Hankins said.

The application process is free, and you can apply by visiting www.retreet.org/mvtc

“Anybody living in the impact area in the Miami Valley is still welcome to apply for trees through our program. It is free to apply. As long as your home was affected by the tornado and you’d like to have trees planted by volunteers, you’re welcome to come online and apply for those trees and be added to our planting list,” McGahan said.

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