One project putting words into action from the Wachiska Resolution in Support of Greater use of Native Plants! is underway. Check out the March 2021 Babbling Brook to read how the P&E Committee and partners plan to improve the bird habitat at Walt Branch Library.

This month's program: Fun Facts About Trees

by Justin Evertson, Nebraska Statewide Arboretum

                                   and Nebraska Forest Service

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Thursday, April 8, 2021 at  7:00 p.m.

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Wachiska Program — Thursday, March 11, 7:00 p.m., via Zoom web conference (registration required)

Link to register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAvfuGoqTssE9I_TKR6enwyeE8DW5-5UAeU

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Nebraska was rightly known for a long time as the tree planter's state. Early settlers were challenged to plant trees to improve their land claims, and they did just that. Every community that sprang up on the Nebraska prairie quickly became cloaked in a “community forest” as people earnestly went about planting trees for the many comforts they provided (and still do). During the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s, the Prairie States Forestry Project put trees front and center in efforts to conserve soil. Millions of trees were planted in thousands of miles of shelterbelts in Nebraska. Thanks to the efforts of J. Sterling Morton and others, Nebraska became known as the home of Arbor Day with all the tree enthusiasm such a holiday elicits.

Justin Evertson has been employed at UNL since 1990 working with both the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum (NSA) and the Nebraska Forest Service (NFS). He is the green infrastructure coordinator for the Community Landscapes and Forest Health Bureau of NFS where he oversees programs that provide funding, technical assistance, and educational outreach for sustainable landscape enhancements in communities across the state. Justin earned his architecture and community and regional planning degrees from UNL. He grew up on a farm in western Kimball County where he learned an appreciation for shortgrass prairie and Nebraska’s wide-open spaces. Justin is passionate about trees, the native landscape, biodiversity, and sustainable landscape development. He lives in Waverly where he plants many trees and works to increase the biodiversity and sustainability of landscapes in the community.

Join Wachiska for this Zoom presentation at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 8. This free public program is available to those who register at Copy and paste this link into your browser or go to Wachiska’s website after April 1 and click on the link directly from the notice to register. You will then receive a confirmation with the meeting number and password. Keep that email, and a few minutes before the program is to begin, click on that confirmation and you’ll be invited into the meeting. Invite others to take part as well.