A Day with Friends of Trees

by Jonathan X.

Can you choose two items from the following that are not made of trees?

Tinfoil, ice cream, toothpaste, ping pong ball, toilet paper, sponge, soap, leather rope, bottle cap, pencil, paper, cream. 

I learned this new thing that day at the event with Friends of Trees. I had big fun and learned a lot of new things.  Here is my story.

I went to a Friends of Trees event with my Destination Imagination team and my friend Peter.  As soon as  we arrived at Ibach park in Tualatin, Oregon, we got our shovels, hats, and gloves.  Equipped with those, we walked down to the place where we would be planting trees. It was in a forest near a little stream.

We walked down to the place we would be getting instructions. A staff of Friends of Trees talked about how to plant the trees. He also gave us handfuls of saplings. We were placed in the Purple Group. That meant we needed to find  purple sticks, take the sticks out, dig holes, and poke in saplings where those sticks were.

Finding a purple stick, our group ran to it. I pulled it out and dug a hole. The dirt was not tough but it was sticky, slimy and wet. I had to dig for about a minute before I reached something hard. I took out my shovel and looked inside the hole. I found what looked like a trace of water with pebbles underneath it . I peered over at the stream near us. Was it possible that the stream near us was connected to the water in the hole I just have dug? I realized they were actually connected. I went to tell my mom about this great finding.

We went ahead to find another stick and found one on a hill right next to a big tree. Peter took the stick out and started to  dig a hole. It was very hard to dig because tree roots were  blocking the way. Our parents needed to help us. We thanked the parents and put the sapling in.  We kept digging and planting until we had no more saplings left to plant.

After  planting  trees,  we went to get a snack. I got a cup of hot chocolate, cookies, and a donut. The snacks were really good!  We also played a dice game. And finally, we got answered to the question given at the beginning of the event. The answers were….. the leather rope and tin foil.  This time I asked a question to one of the Friends of Trees staff:  How can you tell the age of a tree? He answered me that the number of rings on its tree trunk tells the age.

I really enjoyed the day with Friends of Trees. I learned new things, planted trees, played games with my friends, and had a great snack!  I really hope you can go to friends of trees events like this one!