On Saturday, April 29th, the environmental preservation organization Sustainable Saratoga will host its annual “Tree Toga” event starting at Pitney Meadows Farm. Over the course of the day, more than one hundred volunteers will disperse throughout Saratoga Springs to plant trees in the yards of 38 “tree hosts.” Tree Toga is one of the numerous volunteer-driven activities organized by Sustainable Saratoga as part of a larger effort to create a more sustainable community.
In 2008, former Saratoga Springs mayor Joanne Yepsen and environmental author Amy Stock formed an informal organization of ecological activists they called Sustainable Saratoga. At first, it was merely a loose collective of like-minded environmental militants, but in 2011, the U.S. Treasury Department granted Sustainability Saratoga official 501(c)(3) charity status, an official tax exemption. Around this time, following the near cancellation of the Urban Forest Master Plan (a grant from New York State to preserve and expand Saratoga Springs’s forests), several Saratoga residents organized citizens to volunteer and inventory for the project and keep the flame alive. Together, they helped launch the Urban Forestry Project. Tom Denny, a now-retired Skidmore music professor, was one of the original members of this project.
“We organized a tree inventory starting in the spring of 2012,” Denny said, “and got about 125 citizen volunteers to come out[…]. People went around with clipboards and little hand-held GPS and identified and marked all the trees.” Throughout 2012 and 2013, Denny and his associates worked closely with the city committee and oversaw the drafting of the aforementioned Urban Forest Master Plan. “From there, we moved on to planting in 2014,” Denny explained, “and we’ve been doing Tree Toga ever since.”
The goal of Tree Toga was to supplement the tree-planting work of the city of Saratoga Springs, particularly in the yards of homeowners. Since 2014, 25-50 trees have been planted each year for a total of 370 trees after this year’s event. Planting trees contributes to a healthy environment in a multitude of ways. Firstly, trees help combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air and storing it in their branches and trunk. Secondly, they provide oxygen, making them essential to the survival of humans and other animals. Trees also help to prevent soil erosion with their networks of roots and to create a habitat for a wide spectrum of wildlife.
“Tree Toga is obviously about planting trees,” Denny said, “but it has also been a great community-building event. We always take a group photo of the hundred or so people who are helping us on that particular Saturday, and that sort of team spirit has been very important.” Denny continued on to explain that he feels like the actual planting of the trees is not the most significant effect of Tree Toga. “We think that actually, that sense of the citizens owning the trees and being a part of that movement and taking more interest in the trees is maybe the biggest impact that it’s had,” said Denny.
For those interested in community service hours or simply to contribute to a good cause, volunteers can sign up through the Sustainable Saratoga Website to volunteer to be a tree planter, a tree caregiver, or for the 2024 Tree Toga, a tree host. After Tree Toga, the Urban Forestry volunteers continue to plant and maintain trees year-round.
The Urban Forestry Project is only one of five branches of Sustainable Saratoga. The other four are Climate and Energy, Land Use and Urban Planning, Pollinators, Native Plants, and Zero Waste. Other events through Sustainable Saratoga in need of volunteers include Pollinator Palooza on June 4th, Saratoga Recycles on October 7th, and Paint Collection Day on October 21st. Donations to help support the cause are greatly appreciated as well.