By Jeana Edmonds
Another fantastic Trees Are Treasures celebration occurred on May 18, 2025, and it was one for the record books!!! What a great day we had. The weather was chilly but gorgeous, and it didn’t rain — amazing!
The trees were beautiful — including paw paw, redbud, and tupelo trees. Our tree expert and her two able assistants did a fantastic job selecting the trees and preparing them for the giveaway. All three engaged everyone entering the Mill Pond path at Wells State Park with information about why trees are crucial elements of our environment, how to plant them, their size, and special characteristics. It was great to see the enthusiasm of all involved
Up the hill a bit, under the pavilion, there was lots of great information on Grassroots Central Mass and Brookfields Fight Fear along with business cards and the flyers created by our Outreach Committee. Also displayed near the pavilion was the beautiful artwork of the students from Wildwood Acres Farm and Forest School. They were asked to draw something to celebrate the beauty and importance of trees and their drawings accomplished that in wonderful ways.
In addition, this year we had incredibly creative craft projects for the kids and their families. One volunteer brought lots of pieces of colored tissue paper and mod podge to allow participants to create the most beautiful collages. The collage example for families to contemplate was stunning. Another volunteer had the great idea of creating bird feeders by smearing pine cones with vegetable shortening, affixing a string to the pine cone, and then dipping it into bird seed. That was really fun and added just a touch of mess that many kids tend to love. Planting a little pea seed in a peat pot and then making and decorating a butterfly were also enjoyable craft activities. It is always so much fun to see the different ways kids interpret a craft and place their own individual vision onto a project. And of course our face painting artist is always a big hit.
Upon leaving the pavilion, visitors followed wonderful signs leading them to the next highlights of Trees Are Treasures. The first stop was a table staffed by an expert on the history of stone walls in New England. He gave everyone who listened new insights about the beautiful stone walls that are an ever present feature of our landscape. The next stop featured a member of a team working to restore the American Chestnut tree. He enlightened listeners as he outlined the devastation caused by the Chestnut tree plight and explained the fascinating ways cross breeding with the Chinese Chestnut may result in a resilient tree with features very similar to our original American Chestnut tree.
At the next stop, visitors encountered our animated, “French Canadian” reformed lumberjack. This character’s fun filled presentation and his reading of a story to the children and their families was another highlight of our day. And beyond our lumberjack, on a walk down the trail, visitors came upon our own Lady of the Wetlands. Her fascination with beavers and beaver deceivers and her knowledge of the significance of vernal pools and other elements of wetlands provided visitors with even more memorable information.
Homemade dog biscuits and the performances of an original Trees Are Treasures song added even more lovely touches to this great event.
All the elements of this informative and fun-filled day unfolded smoothly and joyfully and a huge shout out of thanks is due to all of the wonderful people who made our Sixth Annual Trees are Treasures a truly fabulous day. There really is no way to fully convey how grateful Grassroots Central Mass is to the incredible commitment of all of the volunteers who make this event possible each year. The team work, intelligent planning, and all around good cheer made the day a true delight!!!!
