TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Mother Nature couldn’t have sent a better sign of approval to the 15 or so volunteers gathered recently to plant new trees at Tinker Air Force Base.
Before a redbud sapling was even unloaded from the bed of a pickup, a lone bumblebee was already dancing in the air around its tiny pink flowers.
Volunteers from the Rose State College Tinker Federal Civic Leaders program and Bioenvironmental Engineering were on hand earlier this month to commemorate Arbor Day on the base. National Arbor Day is today.
Cathy Scheirman, 72nd Air Base Wing Civil Engineering Directorate chief, told the volunteers that the base is committed to protecting the environment while providing world-class support to the Department of Defense and Air Force warfighters.
The base is in its 25th year as a Tree City USA, designated by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The base cares for 6,000 trees that provide natural habitat and quality of life for residents.
Volunteers planted 50 tree saplings, including black cherry, Carolina buckthorn, American plum and dwarf chinquapin oak. The saplings were planted near the base’s nature trail northwest of the firing range.
Natural Resources Manager John Krupovage said the varieties are flowering trees native to the area and adapted to thrive with average rainfall.
“Pollinators are a big thing you hear about these days, about monarch butterflies in trouble, honeybees in trouble, and these kinds of issues, so we’re really trying to plant trees that are going to benefit those species and others,” he said.
The project is actually part of a long-term restoration of the small area. The tangle of trees there was so overgrown a few years ago that it was useless for most wildlife and they had to be felled.
“When the trees are that thick, it makes a biological desert underneath,” Krupovage said. “Wildlife really can’t use it, and it’s just not a healthy system.”
The new trees will promote habitat for insect larvae, caterpillars and similar creatures. “We’re basically planting bird food,” he said.
The varieties also are deliberately chosen to be compatible with airfield operations. Large birds such as geese can knock out jet engines if sucked in. Airfield managers do all they can to discourage the larger birds on base, he said.
Krupovage capitalized on another one of Mother Nature’s creatures attending the ceremony to make his final point.
“The Carolina wren that you hear singing,” he said, pointing in the air. “That guy, he’s small. He’ll just stay in the woods. He won’t go out in the airfield. It’s not his kind of habitat. That’s kind of the way we’re managing things. It’s a balancing act but it can be done.
“We’re trying to manage the land for the military mission, but also the community.”