Tuesdays in the Park
Idea submitted by: Lou Meyer,
plant health care technician, North Cincinnati R/C
10 | September/October 2015
T
his summer, the Madisonville neighbor-
hood of Cincinnati, always had something
to do on Tuesday evenings. More specifically, its
two-month summer series called "Tuesdays in
the Park," an effort the Madisonville
Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation
(MCURC) created, encouraged neighbors to
go outdoors and be active while learning about
the community.
Madisonville resident Lou Meyer, plant
healthcare technician at Davey's North Cincin-
nati R/C office, was eager to join the cause and
offered his tree expertise for a fun nature walk
event for the summer series.
"Tuesdays in the Park offers unique, free
events to our diverse community," Meyer says.
"It's a great way for community members to get
outdoors and participate in activities they have
never done before."
MCURC agreed to Meyer's request and
added the nature walk to the summer series
list, ranging from Zumba to bike repair class.
Meyer's nature walk at Little Duck Creek
trail was a hit, with more than 25 community
members in attendance. Meyer led two
groups comprising adults and children on
a hike through the woods, during which he
discussed tree benefits using Davey's tree
benefit value tags.
"The community members were thrilled
to hear everything and asked a lot of great
questions," Meyer says. "They had a great time,
but I had an even better time."
Meyer says the adults were very interested in
the dollar values of the trees—revealing tree
benefits they didn't even know existed. The
children learned about trees using senses other
than sight as they touched and smelled different
Lou Meyer discusses tree benefits in
dollar values to Madisonville community
members during a Nature Walk.
tree species' plant material in order to determine
which types of trees they were looking at.
"It was great to get people who have never
been out in the woods learning about trees,"
Meyer says, adding that feedback from the
nature walk has been so positive, "they will
definitely be scheduling another, with talk of
making them an ongoing series in different
parks throughout the area."
Madisonville children
talk trees with Lou Meyer.
