Tree Committee continued work despite pandemic

WASHINGTON - In the last 30 years, the Washington Tree Committee has planted and given away more than 12,750 trees.

They have received more than $130,000 in grant money and $110,000 in donations.

Committee Chair Marde McConnell presented the numbers to the City Council on Tuesday. To be a Tree City USA, the committee is required to make an annual report to the council.

In 2020, McConnell said they were able to hold their free tree giveaway. Instead of doing it downtown, they held a drive through giveaway at the fairgrounds.

For the first time, McConnell said they started before 8 a.m. because of the high attendance.

'We'll be happy when we can go back to doing it downtown,” she said. 'But we're anticipating we'll be out at the fairgrounds this year.”

The committee planted 47 evergreens on the west edge of the soccer fields and received a grant to plant trees at the water treatment plant.

The committee assisted the Washington Golf and Country Club after it lost 86 trees. McConnell said they helped locate trees for them.

McConnell said they applied for a Trees Forever grant for $4,300. The money will be used to plant five trees at the city municipal building, two downtown, nine at Lincoln Elementary School, two at the middle school and four at the high school.

After presenting the events from the past year, committee member Andy Dahl presented the 2020 Volunteer of the Year award to Joe McConnell.

'For all his hard work not just the last year, but the last 30 years,” Dahl said.

Dahl said Joe McConnell has driven to Iowa City at the last minute to pick up a forgotten tree, taken a U-Haul to Minneapolis to pick up trees and watered freshly planted trees in the middle of the night.

'Planting hundreds of trees in very wet, very dry or nonexistent soil in sometimes very hot, very cold or very wet weather, always planting them correctly,” Dahl said.

Other small but important tasks he does includes pizza deliveries, recycling tree buckets, putting tools away and mulching, he said.

Joe McConnell is a member of the tree committee and husband to Marde.