BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Every November and April, hundreds of volunteers take to the streets of Buffalo to plant trees and help replace the ones we lost a decade ago in October.
Re-Tree Western New York is an ongoing effort for many volunteers. But one man among Saturday’s volunteers joins three generations of his own family in the effort.
Michael Alspaugh, a passionate outdoorsman, was joined by his daughter and grandsons.
"When she said that the boys wanted to come, I was just tickled pink. Couldn’t ask for more to have the whole family together doing this,” he said.
Michael's daughter Sarah Lotz felt her two sons should learn to get involved and care about the environment early in life.
"I believe that it’s very important for them to understand that they need to help the environment…that they need to go out and actually do this,” Lotz said. “It's beautiful out, so it helps.”
October of this year will mark 10 years since the surprise storm that devastated trees around Western New York.
"Just on our street alone, to hear the trees cracking and the branches falling. It was just tragic,” recalls Alspaugh. “Just something I don't think anybody will ever forget.”
And for 10 years now, Re-Tree WNY has been marching along with its goal to replace 30,000 trees. The movement has grabbed volunteers from all backgrounds and ages.
"Everybody deserves to have a nice place to live and take pride in where they live,” said Jennifer Norton, who has volunteered for four years. “And it really brings a community together.”
The neighbors, who live in areas like University Heights, appreciate what new trees add to their streets.
"I think it's great,” said Sherry Pierce, watching from her front porch. “We're getting something nice around here.”
The effort doesn't stop with just planting. A new addition is a program called “Communi-tree.”
The City of Buffalo and Cornell will partner to have experts teach citizens how to maintain the trees after they're planted.
Darren Cotton, who volunteers for the University Heights Tool Library, said Communi-tree was just unveiled.
"And so we'll sort of have all these citizen experts spread out all over the city making sure that these newly planted trees will live a happy and healthy life,” Cotton said. “And we'll have a really awesome tree canopy because of it.”