Silver Bow Kiwanis Kiwanis Club Meeting, Mar 31, '15

12:00-1:00 Tuesday, March 31, 2015

This week we were joined by Paul's friend Dick who was traveling through Butte on their way to the Grand Canyon. Kt's son Eamon was with us as well, and really liked his chicken strips. Betsy's daughter Amy Jo was here again, this time picking up her membership materials - hopefully a new member soon! Also, Cody from AmeriCorps was with us. And, as usual, Reno from the Circle K was present.

Cody let us know about the Mayor's day of service coming up on April 7. All service organizations are asked to join them at NCAT to work on prepping the Community Garden. Produce from the community garden is donated to the Butte Emergency Food Bank.

Cathy let us know that she will be on Party Line on April 7 talking about the 100 Year Celebration, and all the great things Kiwanis does in Butte and Southwest Montana.

We have a board meeting coming up this Thursday at 5 at Metals.

April 11 is our Kiwanis One Day project. We will be meeting at Perkins at 9am to split into teams and go clean up playgrounds around Butte.

Keith let us know that there is not a Builder's Club or Key Club meeting this week. However, Circle K is having their Installation Dinner tonight at 7 at Metals.

Gene then introduced Charlie O'Leary to talk about Urban Forestry.

The urban forestry department at Butte-Silver Bow was created in 1989 to address the loss of trees in Butte, but the group was not staffed or significantly funded until 2004.

The tree loss in Butte was due to several factors, the most significant of which was trees cut for timbers for mine bracing, trees cut for fuel for the smelting processes, and trees lost due to pollution from the open heap smelting. There were losses to other pollution and harvesting for other reasons, but these were the three most significant. Heap burning was banned in Butte, and the minimum stack height for chamber burning was set to 70' in 1910. Though there were several tree projects started, it wasn't until 1989 that the county stepped forward to start something.

Currently Butte is the only major city in Montana without an Urban Forester on the payroll. An Urban Forester would help with planning tree planting and tree replacement, work on maintaining the existing trees on public property, and help to educate the public about trees, tree planting, and tree care.

Canopy cover is an important measure of overall tree health. The average canopy cover in US cities is 27%. Butte is at 9%. Canopy cover is the amount of the ground obscured from view from above by the leaves and branches of trees.

The urban forestry department has several projects in the works currently. They have recently planted several trees in Chester Steele park and along Rowe Road, and are working on replanting through the boulevard on Elizabeth Warren. They are also going through and replacing last year's winter kill and replacing some trees that have died over the last several years and had not been replaced.

Presentation

Charlie O'Leary, Urban forestry

Menu

Chicken Strips and Fries

Attendees

25

Event Updated

6:06 Tuesday, March 31, 2015