Fifth graders plant trees along Spring Flat Creek

Dozens of little hands dug into the soil beside Spring Flat Creek March 26. Children oohed and ahhed over earthworms and the prickly feel of the saplings they were planting in the chilly March weather.

“ the digging and planting because I get to get dirty,” said Colfax fifth grader Brody Yarnell.

Two fifth grade Colfax classrooms descended on a pasture of Tom Kammerzell’s land next to Highway 195 Friday to plant roughly 300 young trees and shrubs provided by the Whitman Conservation District.

Every year for 12 years the district has offered free trees for students to plant in an effort to promote soil conservation and provide students with knowledge about the environment.

The first class of the day was Shala Vorderbrueggen’s fifth graders. Judy Moore’s class of 20 students was the second group to bus out to one of Kammerzell’s pastures along Spring Flat Creek south of Colfax.

The Kammerzells operate Maple K Farms and use the pastures to graze his Highland cattle.

Moore’s students paired off in teams, each with a shovel. They first scraped away the top layer of dead grasses and vegetation, then plunged the shovel into the dirt. Located right next to the creek, the wet soil gave away easily.

“He’s got pretty good soil. He’s got a lot of microbiology going on in his soil,” said Kimberly Morse, district coordinator for the Whitman Conservation District.

Students then picked out a small, foot-high tree or shrub from nearby buckets.

Morse estimated they had more than nine different types of plants, including eastern red cedar, douglas fir, choke cherry, lilac, scotch pine, honey locust and snowberry.

Students gently burrowed the roots of their tree of choice into the holes, then filled them.

After placing a protective sleeve, support pole, a plastic tarp for cover, and tiny neon marker flags, they moved on to the next tree site.

“I like that we’re helping someone at the same time,” said fifth grader Hope de Avila.

Droopy pussy willows and twisted pine trees lined the curving Spring Flat creek, a little swollen this time of year. Soon, the children’s neon flags popped up everywhere, marking the location of their trees.

Kammerzell said he was pleased to have the new trees, seeing as it was good for the kids, good for the quality of his soil and good for the stream.

Nine years ago, the same Whitman Conservation District program brought classes out to a different Kammerzell property to plant trees.

Some of those same trees are now 20 feet tall, he said. Not only that, but the fifth graders who planted those trees nine years ago graduated high school last school year.

He noted with the trees planted close to Highway 195, the students can look for their trees as they drive past over the years.

“This spot, they’ll be able to watch it,” Kammerzell said.