Planting Trees

Amy Burdick from the Storm (second from left) with Danny Levine, Sara Carter, Mary Carter and Scott Decelles from Carter Subaru . /Storm Photos

Saturday was the Tree Planting Kick-Off event for the Mountains to Sound Greenway. As part of the event at Lake Sammamish State Park, Storm fans and employees helped plant the 143 trees donated as part of the season-long "3's for Trees" campaign. Storm Director of Ticket Sales & Service Zachary Fraser was there and blogs about his experience.

When the opportunity was presented to help plant trees at Lake Sammamish State Park as part of our relationship with the Mountains to Sound Greenway project, one thought immediately came to mind: my son would love to play in the mud.

As transplants to the Pacific Northwest, we are being brought up to speed on community efforts that involve "green" initiatives. We ride the bus (most of the time), we recycle, we use Storm-branded chico bags at the store, but we have yet to help plant trees. So, we put on our red rubber boots and our grubby jeans and headed east on I-90 to the park.

We showed up and wasted no time in being put to work along with about 150 other volunteers (I didn't take the time to count, but it seems like an accurate estimate). It was pretty simple: Grab a shovel, dig a hole, put the tree in, fill the dirt back in, and do the "tree dance" to make sure the roots were packed tight enough to pass the "deer" or "pull" test. (Basically, you dance around the backfill dirt to pack it in tight so that it can't get pulled out by snacking deer. I learn something new every day). Brain surgery it was not.

Besides the postcard setting (60 degrees and sunny with fall colors exploding off the trees in the park), the best part of the morning was the incredible variety of people that were there. It was very similar to what makes a Storm game such a great event - the sense of community that exists, bringing people from different backgrounds together to have fun and do some good at the same time. My son even found a pet worm and named him "Bono."

We planted three trees - that was the extent of my son's attention span. It will be fun to go back year after year to look at "our" trees (the locations won't soon be forgotten), and to see the area as the trees mature. Plus, it was great to be able to track mud through the house without getting in trouble!