Hatboro-Horsham Students Will Participate In Tree-Plenish Tree Planting This Spring

HATBORO-HORSHAM, PA — Students in Hatboro-Horsham are participating in a nationwide drive to plant tree saplings in communities to help offset paper consumption and as a way to promote sustainability and educate the public on the effects of climate change.

Students for a Sustainable Future, which is a club based out of the Hatboro-Horsham High School, is participating in Tree-Plenish, which is a nationwide drive to plant tree saplings throughout the area.

The goal is to plant a total of 315 trees to help offset the 3.1 million sheets of paper that were used during the previous school year, according to Talia Newman, a Hatboro-Horsham senior who is involved with the SSF.

“The trees that we plant are going to have a much bigger impact than just the days that we planted them," Newman told Patch in an interview Wednesday.

Newman said the project started when a representative with Tree-Plenish contacted Hatboro-Horsham teacher John Liguori, who is the faculty advisor with the SSF, saying that the club may be interested in participating in the tree-planting initiative given its environmental objectives.

From there, Liguori handed it over to Newman, who worked to begin setting up the program.

The group currently has orders for 178 trees from members of the Hatboro-Horsham and surrounding communities, Newman said. That means the group is more than halfway toward its goal of selling 315 tree saplings for planting.

"The project is going to outlive 2022," Newman said, noting that the trees that end up being planted will hopefully be there for many years to come.

May 1 has been identified as the tree-planting date, when members of SSF will go out to the homes of those who ordered the saplings and plant the trees for them.

Newman said the program is open to those outside of the Hatboro-Horsham community, but if orders are placed from homes more than 30 minutes away, tree-purchasers are asked to come pick up the trees themselves at Hatboro-Horsham High School.

Otherwise, Newman and her fellow club members will go out into the local community and plant the tree saplings themselves come the first of May.

"It's really exciting," Newman said of the project.

Newman said environmental clubs with other area school districts, such as North Penn and Upper Dublin, are also participating in Tree-Plenish.

The form to order tree saplings will close on April 1, one month prior to the planting event.

Newman said if those who purchase trees are not home on May 1, the day of the plantings, they can instruct the high schoolers to either leave the trees on their properties or they can leave an indicator in their yards on where they want the saplings planted and the students will oblige.

Visit here to learn more about the Tree-Plenish event.