The Winamac Town Park will see several of its dead trees replaced, thanks to the Indiana Department of Transportation. INDOT had planted trees in the Town Park, to replace ones that were removed as part of a State Road 14 reconstruction project. However, many of those trees have been unable to survive.
Last week, Winamac Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo told the town’s park board that INDOT representatives recently visited the park to check on the trees. “They were looking at the 37, I believe, trees that they planted in the park,” DeLorenzo said. “They are going to replant all of the trees that did not make it.”
He said he didn’t know exactly how many trees would be planted as part of next spring’s replacement-of-the-replacement effort, but he said it would be a majority of the smaller dead trees in the park. Meanwhile, DeLorenzo reported that one memorial tree is also set to be replaced with another one, leaving one or two more that will need replacement.
Park advisory council member Chris Smith said the group hopes to organize volunteers to water the trees every day or two. “That’s one of the things we’re kind of looking at, is seeing if we can’t, once they’re planted, get some commitments to take care of those trees for a year, so they can put some root stimulus,” she said.
Park board member Brad Zellers suggested that the advisory council work with the Winamac Tree Committee to organize volunteers. DeLorenzo pointed out that the trees not only had to endure very dry conditions last year, but also a long period of flooding.
