Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Participants stretch before planting, including left to right, Antonio Hendrix, of OEC, Joselfy Henriquez, a SUNY ESF student, Yvonne Chu, of OEC, Saadiya Sheekh-Nuur, of OEC, and Logan Reidsma, of OEC. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC foreman Logan Reidsma shows crew members how to plant Asclepias Tuberosa, also known as Butterflyweed. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC program coordinator Kate Abel and OEC foreman Logan Reidsma look at a landscape guide before planting. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Participants include left to right, OEC volunteer Justin Kwiatkowski, ESF students Vic Borrero-Garcia and Joel Graves, OEC founder Eli MacDonald, and ESF grad student Lauren Sugay. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs.Left to right, SUNY ESF students Vic Borrero-Garcia and Lauren Sugay participate. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC crew member Saadiya Sheekh-Nuur, of Syracuse, carries plants to a volunteer for planting. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Indie Bentley, 7, of Syracuse, pauses in front of the Onondaga Creekwalk in Kirk Park as he waits for his mom, India Kellam. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Left to right, SUNY ESF landscape architecture student Joel Graves and OEC crew members Antonio Hendrix and Saadiya Sheekh-Nuur participate. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC crew member Antonio Hendrix places flags in the ground to show where the plantings are. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC crew members Nyjheer Gunn, left, and William Spinks prepare to place fencing around newly planted trees so that they won’t be eaten by deer and other animals. Spinks is pounding in a post to attach a fence. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC crew members Nyjheer Gunn helps to clean up after planting. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Fencing around a newly planted Sallix Discolor tree protects it from being eaten by deer and other animals. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. Left to right, OEC volunteer Paul Sexton talks with EOC founder Eli MacDonald. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Syracuse Department of Parks, Recreation and Youth programs sponsor the Travelers Rest Garden Planting at Kirk Park, 1101 South Ave., Syracuse, Saturday, October 8. OEC crew members lead community volunteers, including SUNY ESF undergraduate and graduate students, in planting trees and shrubs. OEC foreman Logan Reidsma surveys the planting efforts after the event. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Onondaga Environmental Institute sponsored the Love Ley Creek Community Tree Planting at 6715 Brooklawn Parkway, Syracuse, Saturday September 24. OEC crew members led volunteers in planting trees and shrubs. The next community tree planting event will be led by Onondaga Earth Corps, the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, and other partners at Bellevue and Midland Avenues on Saturday, October 15th to plant shrubs and trees. Registration begins at 9:30 am and the event starts at 10:00 am. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Onondaga Environmental Institute sponsored the Love Ley Creek Community Tree Planting at 6715 Brooklawn Parkway, Syracuse, Saturday. September 24. OEC crew members led volunteers in planting trees and shrubs, including this Arrowwood Viburnum. The next community tree planting event will be led by Onondaga Earth Corps, the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, and other partners at Bellevue and Midland Avenues on Saturday, October 15th to plant shrubs and trees. Registration begins at 9:30 am and the event starts at 10:00 am. Photo by Michelle Gabel 
Onondaga Earth Corps and Onondaga Environmental Institute sponsored the Love Ley Creek Community Tree Planting at 6715 Brooklawn Parkway, Syracuse, Saturday September 24. OEC crew members led volunteers in planting trees and shrubs, including this Red Osier Dogwood. The next community tree planting event will be led by Onondaga Earth Corps, the Syracuse Urban Food Forest Project, and other partners at Bellevue and Midland Avenues on Saturday, October 15th to plant shrubs and trees. Registration begins at 9:30 am and the event starts at 10:00 am. Photo by Michelle Gabel
Two Onondaga Earth Corps employees stared at a map of trees, shrubs and plants.
Moving from right to left, they matched the potted plants with where they’d be planted on a hillside near the Onondaga Creekwalk across from Kirk Park.
Six volunteers, including four SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry students, waited as the corps members laid out the plants.
For the next five hours, a group of about 15 people dug holes in the hillside and filled them with plants. Then they mulched the hillside.
Onondaga Earth Corps Executive Director Greg Michel described the effort as a “restoration plant.” Over the last two years, an 8-foot high chainlink fence was removed near this stretch of the Creekwalk. Invasive plants growing on and around the fence were removed. It had blocked residents’ view of the Creekwalk and of Kirk Park.
Now, OEC is replacing those invasive plants and residents can see the park from the Creekwalk.
“We’re putting in native trees to improve ecology but also getting community input,” Michel said. “People like the new visibility they have along the Creekwalk.”
In recent years, the city has put in place its Urban Forest Master Plan and taken steps to improve the Creekwalk.
The master plan lays out a goal for Syracuse to improve its tree canopy by about 7%. Michel said the city needs to plant about 3,000 trees each year to hit that goal.
OEC will be a big part of that: The organization is tasked with planting more than half of the trees planted in the city each year. Last year, the group planted 1,471 trees.
Onondaga Earth Corps is a nonprofit that often hires youth to plant trees and improve green spaces. Beautifying the Creekwalk is among its key projects. It also has a multiyear project to remove buckthorn, an invasive plant, from Schiller Park. So far, OEC has removed several acres. OEC will replace Buckthorn with native plants.
In all, OEC plans to plant 1,500 trees in Schiller Park and along the Creekwalk and will supplement that with another 430 trees along city streets and in parks.
Saturday’s planting at Kirk Park included few trees. Restoration projects often include more shrubs and low-growing plants.
The planting builds on previous work from the Onondaga Creek Revitalization Plan and contributes to the goals in the Urban Forest Master Plan. It was funded as part of an ecological enhancement project through through the Onondaga Lake Natural Resource Damage Assessment Restoration.
On a walking tour before the event, residents told the city and OEC they liked the new view from the Creekwalk across Kirk Park after the fence came down.
A landscape architect hired by the city picked out low-growing native plants, shrubs and trees to preserve their view.
“We wanted to preserve these view sheds,” Michel said as he pointed from the Creekwalk to Kirk Park.
OEC Planting Schedule
October 15
Syracuse Urban Food Forest Community Planting, at Bellevue and Midland avenues in Syracuse, from 9:30 a.m. through 1 p.m.
October 22
Onondaga Lake Community Planting, at Onondaga Lake Park, 106 Lake Drive, Liverpool, from 10 a.m. through 1 p.m.
November 5
Schiller Park Community Tree Planting, at Schiller Park, 1100 Rugby Road, Syracuse
Onondaga Earth Corp holds its annual fundraiser on Oct. 29 from 5:30 – 9:30 p.m. at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. More information can be found here.
