Any school located in Greenville or Spartanburg County can apply to partner with TreesUpstate on a School Tree Planting.
Spartanburg County?
Yes! Spartanburg! We’re excited to be partnered with The Noble Tree Foundation and to expand the scope of our mission to the Upstate. Together, we will plant 100 trees at Spartanburg County Schools this upcoming school year.
When Do We Plant?
Our planting season is October – March.
For larger plantings of 17-25 trees, we plant with volunteers on a Saturday morning from 9am to noon. On planting day, we’ll bring tools and and gloves. We start with a tree planting demonstration to teach everyone how to properly plant and mulch a tree.
TreesUpstate also works with teachers to put together educational tree plantings during the school day with up to 4 classes. Student plantings take place on Wednesdays between November and February. With elementary students, we typically plant 1 tree per class (45 minutes per class). With middle schools students, we typically plant 2-3 trees per class (1 hour per class). With high school students, we typically plant 3-5 trees per class (1 hour per class). Due to the high volume of our educational planting requests, each school only qualifies for one educational tree planting per year. Every student in the class has an opportunity to participate in the tree planting process at our student planting events, and our staff teaches the proper planting techniques as well as the benefits of trees.
How much does it cost us to participate?
Trees are provided FREE to schools. All we ask is that you recognize us as a Community Partner at the level of our donation of trees and time. The full cost to TreesUpstate to plant one tree is $200. This includes site visits, site analysis, site planning, species selection, nursery stock selection, trees, soil, mulch, amendments, project management, and tree installation.
We also require our site partners to water the trees for 2 years to ensure survival. However, if watering trees is an obstacle for your school, we encourage you to apply for our program anyways, and we will work with you to come up with a watering solution.
How does it work?
Step 1
Someone from your school needs to submit an interest form. Complete this short survey now to get started. We recommend applying between April and August to secure a spot in our October – March calendar.
Step 2
TreesUpstate’s Forestry Staff will work with your designated school staff or faculty member to plan and organize a tree planting at your school. TreesUpstate will help you select the right tree for the right place. A site visit with you will help us draft a landscape plan. Once approved by your principal you’ll submit the final plan with your DFK (if applicable) to the school district.