On Tuesday, December 26th, members from the Oakland Gardens Branch from AYLUS went back to Crocheron Park to put mulch around trees from 9 am to 12 pm. Once more, we collaborated with Dana Gumb, a plant specialist at New York City Parks.
During the 3 hours that our group was volunteering, we covered a large area in the park as well as learnt a lot about what we are doing and the trees around us. We worked hard together to finish the mulch pile that we initially started and to give the most trees we can the best chance of surviving the winter. While we were taking mulch from the pile, a mini bulldozer driven by Dana’s friend, German, came over and collected the mulch. After that, it put the mulch around other trees that were farther away so we wouldn’t have to walk around with a heavy wheelbarrow. A few people still had wheelbarrows and shovels so it was even quicker. Jessica Ugalde also stopped by to check up on everything and to make sure everything is going smoothly. Dana’s friend Gene McQuillan also helped us with the mulch rings and brought the tools out.
Dana showed and taught us about different specimens of many trees and plants. He also taught us about their scientific names, where they came from, and more. Some examples of trees/plants that we saw were Juneberry shrubs (Amelanchier), swamp white oak (Quercus Bicolor), and tulip trees (Liriodendron Tulipifera). Dana told us that we can recognize oak trees because in the winter, they tend to hold on to their leaves longer, unlike most other trees. The swamp white oak had a trunk with a whitish hue. Tulip trees have a main branch that goes straight up to support the tree. They got their names from their flowers that bloom during the spring, which look like tulips. The leaves on the tulip trees also bear a resemblance to tulip flowers, as the shape is similar. Juneberry shrubs bear berries in June. The berries are a food source for animals such as birds. Juneberries look like blueberries, and taste a bit like them too. However, Juneberries only grow for 2-3 weeks in June. They also rot very quickly and are very hard to preserve.
Dana also told us to place the mulch in a shape like a “donut” around the trees and not a “volcano”. This is because a “donut” has a hole in the middle and is more even whereas a “volcano” does not. A “volcano” appears when you pile mulch on the root flare, an aboveground place where the roots of a tree “flare” out. If we put the mulch too close to the trees, then the mulch will lock in moisture around the tree’s trunk. The moisture will make the tree trunk start molding since a tree trunk is not used to being wet all the time. Dana compared it to when you put your hand in a bucket of water for an hour. When you take your hand out, it will be very wrinkled since your hand is not supposed to be submerged.
We also had two Queens newspapers interview us regarding AYLUS and what we do. We would like to thank all of our parents and members for making this possible, as we wouldn’t have gotten this far without everyone’s help.
We’d like to thank German and Gene McQuillan for their help. After all the work he has done for us, we’d like to thank Dana Gumb for helping us throughout all of these mulch events. We also like to thank Jessica Ugalde for collaborating with us to make events such as these possible.
Our Volunteers:
Jia Qi Liu (Angela): 3 hours
Hong Hao Liu (Alfred): 3 hours
Stephanie ShiRan You: 3 hours
Sophia ShiHan You: 3 hours
Anthony Lin: 3 hours
Ricky Song: 3 hours
Ioknor Lin: 3 hours
Ioklee Lin: 3 hours
Iokseng Lin: 3 hours
Brandon Lin: 3 hours
Aiden Lin: 3 hours
Ryan Wu: 3 hours
Hannah Zheng: 3 hours
Patrick Guan: 3 hours
Darren Chen: 3 hours
Colleen Chen: 3 hours
Zhengyilan Fang (Elaine) : 3 hours
Shiqi Zheng (Suki): 3 hours
Jiaheng Yu: 3 hours
Binshan Bai (James): 3 hours
Erica Li: 3 hours
Amy Liu: 3 hours
Hannah Liu: 2 hours
Evina Liu: 2 hours
Ryan Wang: 2 hours
Report by Hong Hao Liu (Alfred), Stephanie Shi Ran You, Jia Qi Liu (Angela), Sophia Shi Han You Reviewed by Jia Qi Liu (Angela)
