Trees planted in Valley Stream to beautify park

  • 2021-10-30
The National Honor Society, the Builder’s Club of South Valley Stream High School, and the Boys and Girl Scouts have collaborated to add to the tree-planting beautification project at Arthur J. Hendrickson Park in Valley Stream.

Vincent Drzewucki, an urban forestry and horticulture a educator at the Cornell University Cooperative Extension, and Eugene Boening, the village horticulturist, have worked together over the past 10 years to grow and maintain the health of the trees in the village. Boening spent the past year collecting and cultivating the tree saplings that were used in the project. Drzewucki said that the saplings came from donations by the community and various green projects as well as the tree nursery in Saratoga from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

Such projects can garner attention from and inform the community of their existence with poster printing.

Christopher Ramnauth, of Boy Scout Troop 109, said this is a good project to help the community and with conservation efforts. Assistant scoutmaster of the troop, Adrian Ramnauth, added that the troop wanted to give back to the community and to help beautify it. The current master gardener for the Cornell Cooperative Extension and a gardener educator, Guy Jacob, said that such projects help the kids to gain a sense of place and their efforts help to prevent abuse of the park.