The Susie Forest

After six weeks with no tree activities and serious withdrawal symptoms, it was so great to attend two tree meetings this afternoon and hear about plans for 2012. I’m not a member of either committee, but they’re used to me attending every meeting and they allow me to give citizen’s input.

Today I gave them some 2011 stats and here they are:
111 trees planted (there may be four or five more when I get confirmation of the plantings).
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84 trees planted in Spokane, 37 planted by Urban Forestry.
States with new Susie Forest trees
CT – 1
VA – 8
MO – 1
WY – 2
OR – 1
Countries with new Susie Forest trees
Japan – 4
Pakistan – 1
Canada – 1

And I donated to Heifer International for a tree planting project in Haiti.

What a great year 2011 was and we’ll make 2012 even better!

This fall was such a busy time with trips and tree plantings and housesitting and being under the weather that I have sorely neglected this blog. I resolve to do a better job!!

It was such a great planting spree this fall with trips to Connecticut, Virginia, Western Washington and Canada. How could I not write and write? Now I’m going to count up all the trees and think about all the wonderful stories – and maybe write about some of them.

This also the time when I try to get lots of the tree-grams and laminated bookmarks ready for the spring planting season. And I mix up cookie dough for the tree-kibbles and get it into the freezer.

As my son Jack says, “Buck up, Mom, this is your job.” And he’s so right. And I love it so much.

Happy New Year to all! And I’ll be back real soon.

So, what’s with you, Nancy? Can’t you write? There’s so much stuffed into my head right now that I can’t get it out. There are some wonderful events still coming up during this last week of tree planting but there have already been so many this fall that I don’t know where to begin.

OK, let’s start with the last event of the season because I’ve already written about it. This wrap-up of the tree planting season is the dedication of the “VICTORY” tree for Grace Flott. This beautiful, really tall Accolade Elm was planted last Friday, but on Sunday the 13th at 1:30 all the people who wrote tree-grams that were hung in her father’s tree while she was hospitalized in Paris and all the people who contributed to her bike and all the people who wish her family well are invited to the tree ceremony. Grace is going to ride her bike up to the tree. Wow!

Watching Grace and her sister Emma and her parents shovel dirt around that tree brought me so much joy. This young woman is going to have a great life!

As I get ready to close my suitcase for my three week trip East I think about the great weekend I’ve just had. It started Thursday with a tree walk and the crowning of another neighborhood tree of the year. Then on Friday the great group from New Zealand planted their tree in Friendship Park. Because the quote on the bookmark is from a letter Susie wrote me from there I brought it for them to read. One man knows where she was when she wrote it and will send me picture when he gets home. Wow!

Then we put in the tree for Spokefest and Miles hid the rake under the mulch so it would be ready for the dedication on Sunday.

Saturday was a day in the heat at a block party. I set up my “What’s the Susie Forest?” table and talked to candidates and neighbors about trees (and ate lots of ice cream). I was able to thank Mayor Mary Verner for the tree she is going to plant in Japan.

Another hot on day yesterday at Spokefeat as I tried to lure the little riders to get off their bikes and climb up the hill to shovel some mulch and write or draw on tree-grams. We had a few enthusiastic kids and they worked hard for their tree-kibbles. Afterward I did make more connections for next year where there will be more exposure and more participation.

And now I leave for Connecticut, Washington DC, and Virginia knowing I’ll be planting four trees. But there is the chance that there may be as many as eight. My suitcase is stuffed just in case.

Last evening the Cliff-Cannon Neighborhood Council held its second tree walk. There were three trees nominated for the title of 2011 Tree of the Year and Judy Gardner worked out a 45-minute tour along beautiful streets. We had a cedar, a maple and an ornamental cherry to choose from.

As a bonus, Ed Lester, a Spokanite who is building an inventory of the biggest trees in the area, joined us and pointed out other trees along the way and answered lots of questions.

When we got back to the meeting place at Roosevelt School, the voting, led by children in the neighborhood, was held. AND THE WINNER IS: – wait for it – wait for it – the ornamental cherry owned by Evelyn Creager.

The Winner

She put out a flyer with pictures of her tree in full bloom and encouraged her neighbors to go on the walk and vote for her tree.

As the winner she will choose where she would like to plant a Susie tree in the neighborhood. So, stay tuned to find out where that tree will be planted.

Tree-grams for Grace

Last April I wrote about Grace Flott and her jump from a burning building in Paris. I wrote a tree-gram and took more to libraries and to tree people and hung them from Jim Flott’s tree. We photographed the tree and sent it to Paris.

On her way to recovery she came home to Spokane and went in her wheelchair to visit the tree and all the messages of love and hope.
While under sedation in the Parisian hospital she mouthed to her mother that she would like to bicycle this summer. Could she get a new bike? Thoughts of Susie resonated through me and I decided she should have that bike. So I went around to those same great people and asked for donations. We raised the money for Grace’s bicycle. Yesterday I went with Jim and Grace to the North Division Bicycle Shop and SHE GOT HER BIKE! What a thrill to watch her ride that bike around the parking lot. Thank you to everyone who contributed and helped me accomplish this.

Grace on her new bike!

Sometime in October there will be a tree planting party where Grace decides she wants her tree. And she will ride up to her Victory tree on her bicycle!

All summer I’ve wondered if the Spokane Indians’ tree be the last of the spring tree plantings or the first of the fall season. July went by and then I waited through August. Would the 2011 team play through the whole season without a tree? Would they have a tree next to the 2010 team’s?
On the last day of August I got my answer. YES! So, tomorrow, the 2nd of September, during the last home stand of the season this young team will plant their tree.
The answer to my summer-long question is that this tree will be the start of my very busy fall planting season. I’m ready!

Fame fades so fast. It’s been a week since my 15 minutes of fame (on the radio) and I’m almost forgetting to write about it.

Mike Petersen invited me to talk about the Susie Forest on the Lands Council radio program on KYRS Spokane’s very local station. It was a fun experience. I met Mike in the lobby of The Community Building and I followed him up the stairs and through the labyrinth of hallways to the tiny studio. Since I was out of breath trying to keep up with his long legs, I was relieved that I was not going to have to speak at the beginning of the program.

When my time came we talked about the start of the Forest and about the goals. Then Mike asked about his favorite tree, the ponderosa. And I goofed – or was it a senior moment? I apologize Mike, I forgot one of the three planted in the Susie Forest. There is one along the Spokane River that was planted as part of a convention.

Because of Susie we also talked a bit about bicycle issues. It was a great 15 minutes and I hope people were listening. Sadly there was no one there to record it, so my 15 minutes is out there somewhere in the cosmos.

Keeping up with the cookies that are a must at every tree planting can keep me very busy. And there is the problem of the oven heating up my small apartment in the summer time. Once heated it doesn’t cool down. So in the spring I try to get some into the freezer for the early fall plantings. This year I have quite a few put away because my friend Ruth and her daughter Heather baked a LOT for my trip to Portland and Seattle. Here’s a public “Thank You” to them.
But this fall I have two early plantings, and then I need to send some to Springfield MO with local arborists because they said with cookies in hand they could plant a Susie tree there. And then I have a three-week trip planned to the East Coast with, I hope, several plantings and then more right after I get home.
Going through my mind all the time is, “Are there enough cookies in the freezer?” In June, on a cool day it hit and I ran to the store for ingredients and made a batch. Into the freezer they went.
And then this week the panic hit again. I checked the weather report and yes, if I got the dough mixed up right away, it would be cool enough early the next morning to rush the through the baking. Off to the store I raced.
There are more cookies in the freezer and if the panic comes back there may not be room for anything else in there.