The Tully Rotary Club, in partnership with local community groups and environmental experts, recently completed the planting of a pioneering microforest behind the Tully Town Hall on Meetinghouse Road. This project, a centerpiece of the Tully Rotary Ecological and Environmental Sustainability (TREES) initiative, aims to transform a 30’x30’ plot into a dense, self-sustaining ecosystem.
The planting event saw an extraordinary community turnout, with over 65 volunteers joining forces with local Rotarians. Participants included members of the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and two Rotary Interact clubs, alongside many friends and neighbors. Together, they planted 310 saplings across 13 native varieties, ranging from pollinators like red osier dogwood and witch hazel to large canopy trees such as sugar maple and red oak.
Del Wayne and Dave Perkins, of Tully Rotary, led the extensive project through community engagement, planning, town board approval and site preparation. Wayne highlighted the effort involved: "We’ve worked from 8 to 4 today, but that’s on top of innumerable hours spent prepping the site, organizing the logistics, and procuring these native species. Seeing the community come together to turn this plot into a future forest is incredibly rewarding."
The project utilizes the Miyawaki method, planting trees tightly at a density of three per square yard to encourage rapid growth and high biodiversity. Sarah Malinowski, a Tully Rotarian and Forester with the NYS DEC who provided scientific guidance, emphasized the ecological value: "Microforests create all the biodiversity of large native forests in small patches of property. They serve as essential islands of habitat for insects, birds, and small animals while acting as powerful teaching tools for the community about the importance of forest ecosystems."
This microforest is among the first of its kind in New York State and adds to the more than 3,500 trees the TREES project has planted across Central New York in recent years. For more information on upcoming environmental projects, visit TullyRotary.com.
