By McKenna MIDDLETON, intern

The Crescenta Valley High School Tree People Club held its first tree care day at the CVHS campus on a recent Sunday morning. This is the club’s inaugural year, led by co-presidents Jemma Kwak and Mary Shahmanyan, both CVHS juniors. The club is in association with the non-profit organization Tree People located in Los Angeles. The CVHS club consults the organization regularly and remains in contact with representatives from the main program to maintain the mission of Tree People most accurately and effectively.

“Tree People works to improve the city’s environment and use trees as a means to reduce pollution and combat global warming as well as other issues that face Southern California today,” Kwak said.

The CVHS club was formed this year to carry out the Tree People goals of tree planting and tree maintenance on a campus-wide level as well as in the community as a whole.

The CVHS Tree Care event was the club’s first act towards bettering the campus regarding vegetation. The main goals of this first event were to introduce the tree preservation and care methods to club members. To accommodate less-experienced members, a Tree People representative from the main organization was present to guide the process of tree care. This first event was used to focus on a grove of trees located near the teachers’ parking lot on the corner of Prospect and Ramsdell avenues.

The group of dedicated club members met on Sunday morning at 9 a.m. to provide maintenance to the weaker trees in the grove. The team spent the majority of the morning building tree berms to protect the roots and smaller trees from run off water.

Overall, members who attended the CVHS tree care day thought the event was a success as members learned valuable skills in tree care that they can apply to other trees on campus. Additionally, the group hopes to hold a tree-planting day in the future as CVHS has ample open space that could be filled with pollution-reducing and California native vegetation.

  Mckenna MIDDLETON