Fifth grade students from Lake Hills Elementary School have helped Luhr County Park take the first step toward recovering from a loss of hundreds of mature trees in a 2014 storm.
Sixty Lake Hills students and parent volunteers planted saplings at Luhr on Tuesday, April 12. Other groups from across LaPorte County visited that week, too, with a goal of planting 900 trees.
“Lake Hills got 250 trees planted, which was impressive for a couple of fifth grade classes,” said LaPorte County Parks Superintendent Jeremy Sobecki. “They did a real good job.”
Saplings planted included: white oak, black walnut, red oak, tulip poplar, bur oak, swamp white oak, shumard oak, pin oak, swamp chestnut oak, American plum, common chokecherry, elderberry, black chokecherry, hazelnut, gray dogwood, pawpaw, persimmon, shagbark hickory, and Washington hawthorn.
Funding for the saplings and supplies was provided by the Robert J. Hiler Family foundation. Thanks to the LaPorte County Park Foundation and Family Express, students were treated to a pizza lunch for their hard work.