George and Meda Fulton honored for volunteerism

Washington residents George and Meda Fulton were named ?Outstanding Volunteers? by the Iowa Urban and Community Forestry Council. They will receive the award at the 22

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Annual Urban and Community Forestry Awards Luncheon on April 17 in Johnston.

Emma Bruemmer, State Urban Forester with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Forestry Bureau said in a press release, ?Meda and George Fulton are an outstanding example of Iowa?s community forestry volunteers. The work done by Meda and George Fulton will benefit Washington for future generations. They are always willing to do more than ?their part.? They?re a wonderful asset to the Washington Tree Beautification Committee due to their knowledge of trees, shrubs, and flowers.?

Meda said she and George have lived in Washington for the past 20 years. She is originally from Ainsworth and George is originally from Crawfordsville. George said he has always been interested in trees ever since he was a farmer.

?We planted most anything you would ever want to plant, and we planted a lot of trees,? he said.

Meda said that she has always enjoyed gardening. That was how she got involved with the Washington Tree Committee. She went to a garden shop once where she saw Marde McConnell, the tree committee?s president. McConnell told her she was there buying trees for her committee and that she would need some help planting them. Meda helped her plant the trees and then she and George joined the tree committee shortly thereafter. They have been tree committee members since 1995.

One of the tree committee?s major annual projects is to choose a street in town and plant trees on that street. Meda said the committee has to visit with the property owners on the street to see if they want a tree or not. The committee selects what type of tree to plant, and then it also has to call Iowa ONE CALL to see if there are any underground utilities in the area.

?We get a lot of volunteers for that,? Meda said. ?That?s good because it takes a lot of manpower.?

George said the secret to a successful planting is getting enough volunteers to help. He said the committee needs volunteers who will dig all the holes the day before the event, and then it needs volunteers to do the manual labor of planting the trees, and giving the tree nutrients in the form of mulch and water.

In recent years the committee has planted trees in places other than the terraces. For instance, a few years ago it planted trees at Case Field and then last year it planted them around the schools in town. This year, the committee plans to plant trees at the campground at the Washington County Fairgrounds. George said it will be nice for the campers to get some shade this year.

The other large project the committee does is give away more than 100 trees every spring.

?We?ve got the tree give-away down to a science,? Meda said. ?We can give away 100 trees in less than half an hour. People seem to be really happy with the trees they get.?

George said that he has learned a lot about trees since joining the tree committee 17 years ago.

?We learned the proper way to plant trees,? he said. ?I probably wasn?t planting them properly before. We also learned the proper way to trim trees.?

George said that of all the projects he?s done on the tree committee, the one he?s most proud of is the Fourth Avenue planting, which started at the hospital and went all the way to the north edge of town.

?If you drive up and down the streets, you?ll see the fruits of our labor,? George said.

George said the committee plants trees because it wants to beautify the town, but trees provide benefits beyond their appearance. He said they cool the ground, provide nesting for birds and give off oxygen.