If you were around Champaign-Urbana during the month of April, chances are you came across something from the Save Our Trees campaign. Together with the Save Our Trees Coalition, we launched a community awareness campaign to raise the alarm on agricultural pollution’s impact on our trees. Here are a few things that we did over this month:
Boneyard Arts Festival Public Art Activation
In partnership with the Urbana Park District, Prairie Rivers Network’s members and volunteers came together to wrap 300+ trees in Carle Park with burlap ribbons. We also included community yard signs that allowed individuals passing by to learn more about herbicide pollution. This community park was one of the locations for testing was conducted by PRN and the Save Our Trees Coalition. With its centralized neighborhood location next to Urbana High School and large, old trees, it’s hard to imagine this park potentially treeless due to drifting herbicides.
There was a press conference held at Carle Park where. PRN’s Kim Erndt-Pitcher discussed her research from the past six years of monitoring and what actions should be taken by city, county, and state officials to address this urgent issue. Kim was joined by Urbana Mayor Diane Marlin and Tim Bartlett from the Urbana Park District.
Save Our Trees Awareness Art Exhibition
Inside of the Re-Group Boneyard Arts Festival show, PRN brought together a group of six artists and commissioned them to create work based around the impacts of herbicide pollution. The artists made pieces ranging from large paintings of shadows cast by oak trees (Crystal Hartman), to papermaking with local and natural fibers (e. ainsley), to comics taking readers on a walk through the woods (Quinn Koeneman), to micro paintings of landscapes (Crystal Berry). There were also interactive pieces like collages showcasing pollution with UV reflective paint (Kelly Hieronymus Whiting) and a rug tufting event where community members could add a ring to a tree to help it grow (Britany Heyen).
This exhibition brought together the community through bridging the gap between art and impact. We are so thankful to all of the artists who stepped forward to work with us.
Lightbox Installation
Driving down Neil Street, you may have noticed a new piece inside of the Lightbox at Dixon Graphics. Together with artists Crystal Hartman, Kelly Hieronymus Whiting, and Madelyn Witruk, we created a large scale Save Our Trees installation during Boneyard Arts Festival. This piece showcases four oak leaves that have “pesticides” on them-shown by UV reflective paint. While impactful during the day, once the sun goes down the Lightbox changes entirely. All of the other elements of the work go dark, but the pesticides glow brightly under blacklights.
You haven’t missed your chance to see this work! The Save Our Trees Lightbox installation will remain up for months to come! Thank you to 40North for letting us take over the Lightbox and help us spread awareness about Save Our Trees.
Save Our Trees Benefit Concert
Last weekend on Arbor Day (April 26th), PRN hosted the Save Our Trees Benefit Concert at the Rose Bowl Tavern. We brought together the soulful sounds of Chicago native Nathan Graham with the local groovy tunes of Merry Travelers in an incredible showcase to gather our community. Anyone in the room could feel the collective power that comes from organizing our community around something we can all agree on–saving our trees.
Thank you to the Rose Bowl Tavern, to the bands, and to the community members who came out for this wonderful event.
Common Ground’s Round Up for Good!
We raised $4,800 from Common Ground Food Coop’s Round Up program in honor of Save Our Trees! Thanks to everyone who shopped at Common Ground and donated your spare change to Prairie Rivers Network. We are grateful to Common Ground’s Round Up For Good program for helping us to spread the word about the devastation caused by herbicide pollution in Illinois.
More to come…
While April was packed with events, we’re not done raising the alarm about herbicide pollution.
“Spring herbicide spraying has begun across Illinois,” said Kim Erndt-Pitcher, PRN’s Director of Ecological Health, “impacting communities and neighbors in its path. Most people are unaware that applications in lawns, school yards, parks, and agricultural fields can cause injury to trees and plants in a neighboring yard, or even miles away. We want people to know how to recognize symptoms of drift injury and what to do when they see them.”
In the coming weeks, you will undoubtedly hear about a report that will shed even more light on the impacts of herbicide and agricultural pollution — not only on our trees, but our water, soil, and community health. You will be seeing more posters, more yard signs, more ribbons, and more creative activations around town to continue bringing our community together for this cause.
