By Madeline Kerr

Students at Wakefield Elementary are learning how to save lives – the lives of trees, that is. 

On May 20, local certified arborist, Paul Hetzler, visited a handful of Grade 5 and 6 students who make up part of the Green Project, a student group that meets weekly to discuss ways to advocate for the environment, to give them expert tips on caring for some of the trees that surround the Wakefield school. 

Many of these trees are growing well, Hetzler noted, but at least one tree – a young, frail sugar maple on the edge of the school’s playground – is struggling to stay alive. 

The members of the Green Project have been concerned with the maple’s well-being for some time now. A few months ago, several of them noticed that other students were breaking off its branches and gouging its bark, leading to lasting damage. A few weeks earlier, they worked together to create a large handpainted wooden sign, encouraging others to treat the tree with respect, and hung it on a nearby fence. The sign reminds students that “Trees breathe too!” and implores them: “Please do not stomp, rip, or break me!!”  

“Well, it’s definitely in rough shape,” Hetzler confirmed, when the Green Project members led him to the maple, adding, “This is a real shame.”  

Besides sustaining damage to its exterior, Hetzler speculated the tree might not be getting enough nutrients from the soil. He showed the students how to test the pH of the soil, using a kit that he brought with him. 

“You know how the back of a cereal box tells you how much iron or riboflavin you’re getting in your breakfast? Well, trees need nutrients too. But soil with a high pH means that nutrients aren’t available to the tree,” Hetzler explained to the students. 

He continued to say that a high pH means the soil is alkaline, and it’s indicated by a blue or purple colour upon testing. 

“What colour is that?” he asked the students, holding up the results. “Purple!” they answered in unison. 

To counteract the soil’s high pH, Hetzler recommended adding a teaspoon of sulfur to the ground near the base of the tree. 

Despite the soil’s quality, after examining the maple’s spindly trunk and the stumps where its branches used to be, Hetzler told the students he saw enough regrowth to declare: “Although I can’t guarantee anything, I think this tree might make it.”

The students cheered.

Hetzler commended the Green Project for their effort to protect the young maple. He noted that by focussing on saving one tree, the students were in fact protecting surrounding trees, too. 

“It’s like the broken window theory,” he said, referring to the notion that signs of disorder, like a single broken window, can lead to the deterioration of a whole neighbourhood. “If kids see that this tree is busted, they will think that trees must be for busting.” 

He also praised the students for their advocacy on behalf of other trees growing around the school. This includes a microforest that the Green Project members helped protect by getting the school board to agree to turn off outdoor floodlights that were shining on the trees all night, which can damage their growth over time. 

“So many people look around and want to do things to improve our world, but they feel like they won’t have an impact … you’ve shown that it’s possible,” he told the students. 

Ilse Turnsen, who helps lead the Green Project along with her friend, Noelle Walsh, agreed. 

“Thorough, focussed advocacy can get results,” she said. She added that the Green Project “is all about learning, seeking help from the community, so that we may know more and do better.”

The Green Project members told the Low Down they want to be an example of how defending the environment starts with treating the plants and animals in our own backyards with the utmost respect. 

When asked what they would say to anyone who questioned why they were putting so much effort into protecting one tree, Grade 5 student Rosemary Millar-Bunch quickly replied, “You would never ask ‘Why are you trying to save the life of just one person?’ would you?” 

Grade 6 student Alyssa Carle nodded emphatically in agreement, adding, “Just like us, trees deserve to live.”