To replenish trees lost in 2020 derecho, Cedar Rapids turns to gravel bed seedlings

CEDAR RAPIDS — Sunlight sparkled and birds sang from their perch atop towering tree limbs on Saturday morning at Bever Park while a volunteer group planted seedlings — the first seedlings grown in gravel beds to be planted in a city park.

The gravel bed seedlings offer an additional source of tree stock for parks as the city of Cedar Rapids works with local nonprofit Trees Forever on the ReLeaf initiative to replant about 42,000 trees on public land after the 2020 derecho destroyed most of the tree canopy.

The city Parks and Recreation Department began growing trees in gravel beds in June as a pilot project. Trees planted in gravel beds are less costly to produce and contain more root mass than field-grown seedlings.

Carole Teator, the city’s ReLeaf program manager, said the city last winter ordered oak seedlings from the Iowa State Forest Nursery and then planted them in a gravel bed, where they grow fibrous root systems. The seedlings were only given water while there.

When a tree is moved from where it is initially planted, Teator said, it goes through transplant shock because it loses so many roots. The seedlings then spent the summer growing roots, which she said should help them establish quicker in their new location and “give these trees a great head start” in their permanent home.

“Any great experiment, you never know what the results are going to be, but we were ecstatic to see the fibrous roots on the seedlings as they came out of the gravel bed” last Friday, Teator said.

Citizen participation

To get the first seedlings in the ground, the Bever Park Neighborhood Association planted 179 tree seedlings Saturday near the Zoo Hill Pavilion in Bever Park.

Teator said the seedlings, especially oaks, need 60 to 100 percent sunlight to grow, which is why they were planted in a more open, sun-exposed area of the park. She said natural regeneration of new oaks can be difficult if they are already surrounding mature oaks.

Brendan Paul, president of the neighborhood association, said the group is working on the restoration of the forested areas of the park that were destroyed in the derecho. Naturally, the residents were interested in working with city staff to do the gravel bed seedling planting when the opportunity arose, he said.

In a time of growing political divisions, Paul said, it’s helpful for people to partake in something tangible happening in their own communities.

“This you can see,” Paul said. “You can point, ‘I was here today. I did this. I worked with people I know that live in the community with me.’”

Parks and Recreation Director Hashim Taylor and other city officials joined in the planting action. Taylor planted two trees, which he enthusiastically dubbed “Hashim trees” — the very first trees he’s ever planted.

“It's a community effort,” Taylor said.

Parks Foundation support

The city also received a $25,000 contribution from the Cedar Rapids Parks Foundation to put toward reforestation of municipal parks as part of ReLeaf. The donation will assist in purchasing supplies including tree tubes, tree stakes, gator watering bags and seedlings.

Previous Parks Foundation contributions have been used to purchase four water wagons to assist with tree planting and care.

Laurie Worden, president of the Cedar Rapids Parks Foundation, said the organization strives to put funds toward efforts that can be beneficial not only to promote sustainability and accessibility of the parks system, but for the community.

“Folks can come together in neighborhood parks, and anytime we plant something, that's really good for people and the planet,” Worden said.

Supply chain

Teator said Trees Forever is helping to increase the available tree stock and is in talks with some nurseries about increasing what they're planting now.

Trees planted at nurseries currently will be planted in the city in four years, Teator said, and other cities will be in need of trees in that time as well. That’s why it’s important to work ahead to boost the supply chain and anticipate future needs, as outlined in the ReLeaf plan.

In 2023, Teator said the city will get seedlings in April, giving the seedlings until October to develop roots. The goal is to plant well above 500 seedlings each year.

The gravel bed seedlings will be planted only in the parks and not rights of way because of their small size, Teator said, but she said this size allows for quicker planting than landscape trees.

In the future, Teator said the city plans to track which species are being planted in the gravel beds and plant rows of different species to experiment with which ones do better.

“We’re going to keep experimenting every year to see what works, but right now for the first year, I think we're thrilled with the results,” Teator said.

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