181 trees planted in one morning at the new lake

More than 80 people spent the morning of Thursday, May 1 planting more than 180 trees at Lake Greenfield, known locally as the new lake. They were able to make quick work of the task that will one day result in Greenfield’s healthy tree canopy being restored from its pre-tornado status.

“It feels a lot like spring,” Greenfield Municipal Utilities General Manager Scott Tonderum said. “We’ve done a lot of work out here prior to this to get it ready for the planting. It’s kind of nice to see it all come together.”

GMU, City of Greenfield and City of Fontanelle allowed workers to help for the day.

Nodaway Valley sent a group of students also to help.

“It was truly remarkable to see 23 students show up to work alongside the HyVee disaster relief team, GMU, City of Greenfield and Union State Bank,” NV’s high school school counselor Brittany Baier said. “Our kids are resilient, compassionate and always ready to lend a hand. Watching them work together to plant 181 trees — and finishing by 11:30 a.m. — was nothing short of phenomenal. It’s a powerful reminder of what can be accomplished when a community comes together.”

Greenfield banker and coach Brian Eisbach came to help from Union State Bank, which allowed a group of their employees to volunteer.

“Obviously it was a great feeling helping plant trees today. It’s amazing how much planning and organizing went into the logistics of this,” Eisbach said. “Tehre was a great sense of pride as there always is when so many people come together for the greater good, just like our community has since last May 21. I’m thankful to be a part of it and blessed to work for a local company that allowed my coworkers and me to participate.”

The trees were paid for by a grant from HyVee and the Arbor Day Foundation.

Iowa DNR Urban Forester Emma Hanigan first provided volunteers with instructions for how trees should be planted, showing them the best way to identify and correct the root structure of the trees, if needed, and the correct way to apply mulch once the tree is planted. She told them to use the mulch to make the appearance of a donut, leaving room between the trunk and the mulch, rather than a haphazard volcano. This is in the best long-term interest of a healthy, growing tree.

An assessment done about a month after the tornado helped experts determine the different species of trees and the number of trees that were lost. Hanigan said there were over 1,500 trees at Lake Greenfield that did not survive the May 21, 2024 tornado that struck Greenfield.

“You’ll see about eight remaining trees. We had some oaks and silver maples that we’re hoping will pull through with some pruning. This area, prior to the tornado, was densely covered,” Hanigan said. “We’re planting a lot of different species today. For conifers, we have black hills spruce as well as white pine. For deciduous trees, we have all sorts of trees: pecan, Ohio buckeye, linden, different types of oaks. We have flower trees today as well, like red bud, crab apple and service berry.”

There were many things the tornado took from the community, but Hanigan described the tree-planting event as “very healing.”

The Hy-Vee One Step program allows customers to partner with the Iowa-based grocer to feed the hungry, plant trees and dig wells for those in need. The tree planting is made possible by the company’s paper product sales.

“HyVee likes to come in and help communities right after an event, especially our communities,” Hy-Vee Assistant Director for Business Continuity and Disaster Relief Cole Bisgard said. “We want to help make a long-term legacy and help heal the scar of the tornado that happened. We were here right away and have a lot of pride in helping our communities because our communities do so much for us.”