A trio of volunteers hacks away at the tightly-wound root ball of a young tree laying on its side. Climate Smart Missoula’s tree program leader Susan Teitelman offers some pointers.
“You can be a little mean with the root ball,” she says. “It’s like an anger management technique.”
The tree is one of seven the nonprofit plants on Missoula’s Northside on a recent muggy morning. The Garden City is known for its robust urban forest, but not all neighborhoods were planted equally.
“As it gets hotter – which, it is predicted to get hotter here in Missoula – our urban forest is one of our best ways we can stay climate resilient and keep Missoula cool,” Teitelman says.
Teitelman helped spearhead an effort last year to map Missoula’s hot and cool spots. Identifying so-called “heat islands” will help the organization target areas to plant trees in the future. They’re an easy way to build resilience against a changing climate, helping to soak up stormwater, shade homes and streets and trap carbon dioxide.
Volunteer Steve Nelson dumps mulch around the new Northside trees.
“It’ll take a while, probably, for them to grow to any size,” Nelson says. “But at least it’s a start. It’s a start, yeah.”
Climate Smart Missoula paid for the planting with state grant funds. Teitelman says they just received a new grant to plant as many as 75 trees over the next couple years.
