Fog clung to the chilled air at Tom Petty Park on Saturday morning. Behind the barking dogs in the off-leash area and the playground tucked near the ballfields, a small group of people were crouched in the dirt.
They were planting trees.
“I’ve always loved trees,” Urban Forestry Program Coordinator Sam Schatz said. “My love probably started when I was a kid climbing trees or making forts in the forest. I didn’t even realize it at the time, but I just enjoyed being around them.”
Schatz is leading an initiative under the City of Gainesville to plant more trees between October and March, when cooler temperatures help young trees take root. Saturday marked the third of six planned plantings, with sites chosen in areas where canopy is lacking, he said.
About 20 volunteers gathered from 9 a.m. to noon, opening the morning with environmental poetry before Schatz demonstrated how to plant a tree properly.
He dug a hole the size of the tree’s black bucket as volunteers leaned in to watch.
“Squat with each dig to save your back,” he joked.
“The shape matters,” Schatz said, pointing. “You want a cylinder, not a cone.”
He stomped the bottom flat, laid the tree on its side and gave the bucket a few hard knocks.
“To get it out of the pot, you kinda hit it, stomp on it, hit it with a shovel — whatever you have to do,” he told them.
When the root ball slid free, the circling roots were visible. He told volunteers to break them apart so the tree wouldn’t strangle itself as it grew. Then he lowered the tree into the hole, added soil saved from the bucket and shaped the top into a shallow bowl.
“This is really helpful for just getting that water exactly where you want to go,” he said. “Lastly, you got your mulch. Just pick up the bucket and dump it.”
Volunteers were equipped with gloves, a shovel, a rake, a tree and a bucket of mulch.
Newcomer Kim Knish, 54, joined with her husband after recently moving to the area.
“I’ve planted many trees in my life and I think I learned a lot about how to do it better and set the tree up for success,” she said.
Knish had to remove diseased trees at her new home, so planting one felt like giving something back. Looking down at her work, she smiled.
“We will come back and watch it grow,” she said. “It will be our little cedar tree.”
For others, the morning felt like contributing to the city’s future.
“I’m thinking of this tree being next to the playground, and kids are going to be running around the tree for years from now when it’s taller and they’ll be underneath its shade,” said volunteer
Chris Miller, 56, admiring his work. “Maybe some kids will be sitting right here.”
Miller, attending his second event, said planting felt relaxing and necessary.
"Everyone likes trees, but they don’t want them in their own yard,” he said. “So, it’s good to volunteer your time if you have it. And if you’re able. I mean it beautifies the city.”
Many Gainesville residents remove trees simply because they don’t understand the benefits, Schatz said.
“A lot of people see trees for their non-services,” Schatz said. “But it’s important to know that trees and hardscapes can coexist so we don’t need to choose one or the other.”
Trees pull their weight in more ways than people realize: filtering pollutants, absorbing stormwater and shading the city’s public places, he said.
“Gainesville prides itself on having a robust and expansive canopy and that’s because we don’t just take down every tree,” he said.
Trees provide habitat and food and are lifelines to pollinators which are so essential to our community, he said.
Volunteer Natalia Medina, 30, said that matters to her.
“Almost every other month you see another forest down, another building going up,” she said.
“So, it’s kind of nice to know that they’re not all just going away.”
Taylor Blair, 20, a volunteer studying trees, has attended two of the events.
“These old trees here aren’t going to last forever,” she said while patting soil around a new sapling. “So it’s really important that we make more trees for the next generation of people coming to live in Gainesville.”
Blair grew up in Gainesville and said giving back feels meaningful.
“It could bring people together and be part of something bigger in the community,” she said. “I love that.”
Digging a tree could vary in the amount of time it could be as quick as 10 minutes if you are strong and quick or hours, especially for bigger trees, Schatz said.
At Saturday’s event, volunteers planted longleaf pine, American holly, eastern hop hornbeam, white ash, live oak and red cedar.
Funding comes from the city’s Tree Mitigation Fund, with trees costing between $30 and $150 depending on size. So far, volunteers have planted 68 trees across the first three events.
None of it would be possible without volunteer turnout, Schatz said. Across all events, about 40 volunteers have helped.
“Volunteers — they just make me smile,” he said. “I’m so excited to meet every volunteer that comes out here and has an inspired eye to plant trees.”
The next planting is planned for mid-January.
“Planting trees is so much fun,” Schatz said. “And I’d love to share that fun with the community.”