Rosebud plants for the future

By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor

Thanks to a collaboration between Wheatland County, Rosebud Lions Club, Rosebud Community Enhancement Society and Rosebud community members, Rosebud is being adorned with flower planters and will add mature trees to the hamlet this year.

Rosebud Community Enhancement Society (RCES) received a $5,000 grant from Wheatland County while Rosebud Lions Club donated $1,000. RCES also invited community members to sponsor the planting project for a total of $3,000.

The majority of the funds will be used to purchase trees and planting materials. A small portion went toward the purchase of flowers. RCES is coordinating the project.

The grant from Wheatland County and donation from Rosebud Lions are “amazing” and “incredibly generous,” said Elly Krogman, a RCES representative. Joining those funds with community sponsorships, she said, makes the planting a community project.

Five trembling aspen and five ponderosa pines will be planted this September, creating a “mini-forest” beside Rosebud’s picnic shelter, Krogman said. Twenty additional mature trees and shrubs will be planted in other strategic locations throughout the community.

Planting trees “is really good to do in this uncertain time in our community,” Krogman said. “With (Rosebud) Theatre (not producing plays during the pandemic), we’re going to plant trees because we’re planning for the future, because we’re (still) going to be around. It feels like a pretty hopeful thing to be a part of.”

Stanley Riegel, president of Rosebud Lions Club, said a tree-planting project is also uniquely timely for the Lions, in honour of their international centennial.

“A national goal was set (by Lions clubs) to plant 100,000 trees across Canada and to create a centennial project in each community where Lions are present,” Riegel said. “Rosebud Community Enhancement Society had plans to plant trees in 2020. When the Lions centennial project was announced I asked the Lions Club if they would like to partner with RCES to make this happen.”

The 30 trees are the first phase of a multi-year tree-planting project designed by Jonny Hamm, a landscape architecture graduate student at University of Calgary, who grew up in Rosebud.

“I first got motivated to plant trees in Rosebud years ago when I started reading about all the benefits that trees provide,” Hamm said. “Things like moderating the temperature, calming traffic, reducing noise, increasing birds and biodiversity, storm water management, not to mention raising property values.

“Rosebud has been lucky to have this incredible name and location,” added Hamm. “I used that in my design by including a lot of flowering trees like crab-apples, so that when people come into town the name really seems to fit, (so) you feel like you’ve entered a garden in the valley.”