Summer reflections: Gravel Bed Nursery

The first thing that we did was meet the people who work at the Gravel Bed Nursery and greeted them. After, in the matter of learning we looked at the gravel bed and the living trees that were in them. Then we talked about the trees and how they are sustainable in the gravel bed and what options to keep trees healthy and sustainable.

We changed the subject to how the trees end up dying and what caused them to die. We left the gravel bed to look at what killed the trees, which is a bug that caused them to die by the so-called “Dutch Elm Disease”.

We obtained books full of trees for identification, and we moved to the next station. We left the nursery to look at trees and identify them with the help of the people who work there. After a few hours, we had lunch and went to watch workers cut down a tree that was blocking the road to the jail building parking lot.

After we had the fun experience learning the process of the workers cutting down the tree, the workers then cut the tree into separate logs and pulled their truck to the side of the road. We helped put the logs and stumps into the truck. After that, we walked back and got ready to leave the nursery as we finished our schedule. What I mostly enjoyed during this experience was definitely watching the process of the tree being cut down and the tree falling.

The least thing I enjoyed that day on the fun experience we had was indefinitely how hot and excruciating the sun was that made it harder to learn.

The most memorable part of that day was the tree identifying and learning about what killed the trees. That was the most memorable because it’s important to learn more about these trees! The most valuable experience was again watching the workers cut down the tree because knowing how to cut down a tree is important because you can always learn new things and the experience was fun especially to watch.

Northside Safety NET (Neighborhoods Empowering Teens) is an internship program for a cohort of North Minneapolis youth. The program is led by Environmental Initiative and has been developed in partnership with public, private, and nonprofit partners.