Volunteers to plant over 100 trees after 2019 tornados destroy Miami Valley treescapes

BEAVERCREEK — This Arbor Day, volunteers with the RETREET program arrived in the Miami Valley to continue their years-long effort of re-planting trees in areas impacted by the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes.

This time their focus is in Green County.

>> PHOTOS: Volunteers to plant over 100 trees after 2019 tornados destroy the Miami Valleys treescape

News Center 7′s Xavier Hershovitz was in Beavercreek Friday, and they prepared to plant Saturday.

The day started by unloading nearly 200 trees from a truck and separating them by tree type.

“We lost just over 1,100 large trees,” Rick Inman said.

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Inman is the Operations Manager for Greene County Parks. He says at Russ Nature Reserve, they lost more than 1,100 trees in the Memorial Day tornadoes in 2019. Many of them had been in the park for more than 50 years.

“It’ll restore the treescape. It’ll look more like a park instead of a park that’s had a tornado go through it,” Inman said.

Keep America Beautiful RETREET program will plant 50 trees at Russ Nature Center as part of their fourth replanting event this weekend.

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“The rest of them will actually be planted throughout the Beavercreek area and all the way west into Dayton,” Inman said.

A total of 140 trees will be planted in Beavercreek, Harrison Township, Riverside, and Dayton in addition to the 50 trees at Russ Nature Center, according to RETREET.

“It lets people know they haven’t been forgotten about,” Grady McGahan with Keep American Beautiful said.

On top of the environmental healing, Grady says it is healing for the community, too, as seeing those tornado-mangled trees.

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“That is a constant reminder so planting these trees again it is a symbol of hope,” McGahan said.

You can also help bring that symbol of hope to the Miami Valley.

“We do need volunteers. We are going to be meeting here at Russ nature reserve tomorrow at noon,” McGahan said.

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No experience is required; they will provide all the tools and show you how to plant.

“It’s really a meaningful experience,” McGahan said.

If you want to volunteer and help RETREET plant any of these nearly 200 trees, you can do so by signing up on the RETREET website.

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