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Ardmore Tree Stewards describe four years of plantings, urge volunteers to help expand canopy
Summary
Joe McNeil, lead PHS TreeTender and founder of Ardmore Tree Stewards, outlined the group’s training, funding and planting process in Ardmore and Wynnewood, said the group has planted roughly 175–180 trees over four years, and asked residents to volunteer for upcoming fall plantings.
Joe McNeil, lead Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) TreeTender and founder of the Ardmore Tree Stewards, described the volunteer group’s four years of tree-planting and stewardship work in Ardmore and Wynnewood in Lower Merion Township and asked meeting attendees to sign up as volunteers.
McNeil said the group formed in fall 2021 to emphasize long-term stewardship—“stewardship … represents caring for our trees, our individual trees, groupings of trees, our tree canopy, over the lifetime”—and to pair scientific guidance with community organizing. He said PHS TreeTenders training and partnerships guide species choice, planting methods and post-planting care.
The group relies on PHS’s twice-yearly bare-root tree offerings timed for spring and fall plantings. McNeil said PHS currently charges a subsidized co-pay of about $70.75 for public trees; nonpublic or additional trees are around $110. When plantings occur in parks the township has covered the co-pay, he said. Ardmore Tree Stewards has also sponsored about 10 people to take PHS TreeTenders training by paying class fees or providing vouchers.
McNeil estimated the group has planted “well over a 150 trees,” adding that his best estimate is “something at least more like a 175 to 180 trees” in strategic locations over four years, mostly at low or no cost to homeowners when the township covers the PHS co-pay. He said the group will move to one focused fall planting per year to concentrate volunteer effort and because fall planting has shown higher success amid recent long dry spells.
Describing how sites are chosen, McNeil said Ardmore Tree Stewards use data such as the Tree Equity Score and the DVRPC sidewalk index to prioritize neighborhoods with declining canopy. He described an operational model of roughly 10 core TreeTenders who each lead small volunteer crews, and said the group conducts on-site assessments with property owners and asks residents to fill request forms before scheduling plantings.
McNeil listed parks and locations where the group has worked, including Penwin Park, South Ardmore Park and Shortridge Park, and said many plantings have been placed just outside the right-of-way in residential areas. He cautioned against overreliance on a single genus in any park—citing many Quercus (oaks) in South Ardmore Park—and described replacement plantings on Argyle Road after mature, single-species street trees were removed by PennDOT or PECO because they had become hazardous.
McNeil also said PHS has adopted model homeowner correspondence language the Ardmore group developed and shared it with other TreeTenders groups. He encouraged residents to become trained TreeTenders—the township will cover training fees for attendees—and noted that the group will post a volunteer solicitation on its Facebook page in the coming weeks.
McNeil closed with contact information and a call for volunteers: those interested should look for the Facebook posting or reach out directly to the Ardmore Tree Stewards.
