6 | July/August 2015
One large bur oak tree, worth $345 in annual
benefits, receives a tag from Matravers.
M
illions of people around the world
united to celebrate Earth Hour, a global
movement to encourage everyone to shut off
non-essential lights for one hour on March 28.
Illinois' St. Charles Park District joined the
cause by celebrating their annual GreenFest
event. GreenFest is an all-day "green" cele-
bration that includes fun-filled activities, from
learning how to make butter in jars to creating
sustainable shopping bags out of t-shirts.
Hundreds of community members and
professionals, including Steve Matravers, sales
arborist at Davey's West Chicago office, turned
off their lights and joined the cause. Matravers
spoke about proper tree care and maintenance
during the event in the Hickory Knolls
Discovery Center.
"Plant more trees, plant the right trees,
plant them correctly and maintain trees" was
the main takeaway from Matravers' speech.
"Everyone gets we need to plant trees, but
we need to plant them correctly."
After Matravers' presentation, he took
community members on the walking trail to tag
trees highlighting their benefits. He pointed out
two trees in particular—one large bur oak tree
and another young hackberry tree. He tagged
both trees with their annual value in benefits,
explaining the large bur oak was worth $345,
while the smaller tree was worth about $14.
"Small trees, if well-maintained over a
long period of time, will one day have the
same benefits as a larger tree," Matravers says.
"All trees do us lots of good."
GreenFest attendees not only learned the
power of trees both small and large but also
participated in other non-electric activities,
including yoga demonstrations, a worm-
versus-cockroach composting station and a
homemade greeting card boxes station.
"GreenFest is an excellent way to get the
word out about being green through taking care
of trees," Matravers says. "It was a lot of fun,
and I had great conversations with people."
It's Good to be Green
Idea submitted by: Steve Matravers, sales arborist, West Chicago R/C
