Planting Trees
How might you be able to help conservationists in a similar way?
Trees produce oxygen that allow people to breathe, but a lot of trees are being cut down for a multitude of reasons, including farmland. Conservationists, like David at Humboldt County Conservation, work to make sure that the land is still taken care of all over our state.
Transcript
[Abby Brown] We all love trees, and we know there's never enough of them. So today we're going to plant one, and my brother David is here to help us. Are you guys ready?
[Kids Voices in unison] Yeah!
[Abby] Let's go!
[Abby] All right, David. It looks like we have a great tree here. What are we planting today?
[David] This is a maple tree, and the first thing we're going to do is dig a hole to put it in.
[Abby] Today's a perfect day.
[David] It's always a perfect day to plant a tree. Today we used our muscles... And shovels. How deep does the hole need to be? Uh, the perfect size of the hole is determined by the size of the pot the tree comes in. You dig the hole just as big as the pot.
[Abby] We're getting there, you guys. I think we're pretty close.
[David] Does it fit in there yet?
[Kid voices in unison] No.
[David] We've gotta dig some more!
[Abby] Deeper!
[Kid] Yay!
[David] Ready? Punch it! You've got to loosen it up, loosen it up. Now pull down. There you go! You see all these roots are bundled up right there?
[Kid voices in unison] Yeah.
[David] You've gotta break this up.
One thing to watch for when you're planting a tree is there's a line right here. That's called the root flare. So we want our soil to be right there. All right. Push in the dirt around the edges. Look at that!
[Kid] We had to dig a hole and then put the tree inside of it and then...
put mulch and...
Mulch around it.
[David] Dump it out right there.
[Kid] We need it all around. We need it spreaded.
[Abby] Two, three...
[Kid] We've got to get it all around.
[Abby] Wait, slowly, slowly. Right on the roots. Get it everywhere. Right on the roots. Then we put this fence around it so deer or kids can't hurt it.
(text on screen Iowa PBS Education)