Local Girl Scouts Help Plant Oaks at Hickory Creek Barrens

Local Will County Girl Scout troops volunteer at the Hickory Creek Barrens Forest Preserve in New Lenox to help the preserve plant hundreds of donated trees. The forest preserve has recently received a donation from a company of 350 oak trees. The preserve quickly saw that they did not have enough help to plant all of these trees by winter time. So Viebach, a Naperville-based foundation's youth programs manager, quickly took to Facebook and asked for any volunteers who would like to help plant these trees.

Viebach received responses from three local Girl Scout troops, two of them being from Will County. On Thursday October 5, Girl Scout Troop 748 planted 10 trees at the forest preserve in New Lenox. With 15 volunteers present, the girls learned about how to care for the environment and about the threats of pollution. "The Conservation Foundation's goal is to save land and save rivers," Viebach explained. "We do this however we can. A big part of that is education. And teaching kids to value land and to value water at a young age leads to adults who value land and value water and will vote to protect it and volunteer their time to protect it."

This volunteer work correlates directly with the Girl Scout Mission. Environmental restoration helps the girls make the world a better place and shows them that they are capable of more than they imagined. Along with building confidence, character, and courage, volunteer experiences such as this open to door to future volunteer opportunities in their future.

Usually, trees are planted at the forest preserve through a local school program called the Mighty Acorns. This program, designed for 3rd through 5th graders, educates kids about their local ecosystems through volunteer efforts. Due to the large amount of trees donated, extra help was needed past the Mighty Acorns, Viebach said. She was thrilled to accept the help from the Girl Scouts. Visit the Forest Preserve District of Will County's Flickr page to see photos from the event.