McHenry High School Tree-Plenish program

McHenry High School’s Environmental Club and Gardening Club are joining forces to try to plant enough trees by Arbor Day to replace the paper used in one year at school.

They’ve launched a Tree-Plenish program to encourage people to help replenish trees by buying tree saplings for $5 each. And students are volunteering to help plant trees in the McHenry area during a big April 30 event to coincide with Arbor Day.

McHenry High School sophomores Danny and Alyssa Thomas, members of the Environmental Club, said they want to do their part to combat climate change. Trees can help by absorbing carbon dioxide. Trees also serve as homes for wildlife, and may help reduce energy bills.

“Even a little bit can help,” Alyssa Thomas said.

Danny Thomas said this is the first time the club has participated in the Tree-Plenish program, and he hopes that it will be successful and make an impact. Other club activities include encouraging recycling and participating in clean-up projects.

The three types of trees available are Eastern Redbud, Northern Red Oak and Bald Cypress. Volunteers from McHenry High School will plant within a 30-minute radius of school, and they note that the saplings are small so they don't require a large amount of digging.

The goal is to plant 345 saplings to offset paper usage at school. School officials estimate that paper use is 20,469,972 pages printed or copied since July 20, 2017, which is the equivalent of 1,555 trees.

For more information and to order, visit tpevents.org/school/2068. Ordering is open until March 30.

For questions, contact Kaley Freund at FreundKaley@dist156.org.