Auburn,
April 17, 2002---Executives with the new Honda Manufacturing
Plant in Lincoln recently presented local Extension agents, Master
Gardeners and other volunteers with a tall order: helping newly
trained employees and their families plant 2,300 trees along the
front of the new facility.
(Above: Calhoun County Master Gardeners and
volunteers from throughout Alabama assisted the Honda Manufacturing
Plant in Lincoln with a massive tree planting on Saturday, April
13. The planting marks a milestone in a close working
relationship between Honda and the Calhoun County Extension office
that began even before the auto company chose to locate in Alabama.)
"They want their buildings and grounds to blend
in with the natural landscape as much as possible," says Dr.
David West, Calhoun County Extension coordinator, who designed the
layout for the planting and organized local Master Gardeners and
other volunteers throughout Alabama to assist with the planting.
West, who holds a Ph.D. in forestry science, offered
Honda one other suggestion: planting the area in native trees. He
then worked up a list of 25 different tree species native to Calhoun
County and four adjoining counties.
"We’re planting them at random so that, in
time, the area will look like a real forest."
Master Gardener volunteers, who assist Extension
agents by providing horticultural information to local clientele,
were also available during the planting to provide hands-on training
and Extension tree-planting publications.
"This is the type of educational work we
do," says Dr. Dan Spector, chairman of the Calhoun County
Master Gardeners. "We’re essentially an extension of the
Extension System, and by the end of the day, we hope to educate more
than 2,000 people in tree planting."
The planting coincided with the Honda Manufacturing
Plant’s Open House, Saturday, April 13.
Honda employees will not be the only ones benefiting
from the tree plantings. The project also served as a hands-on
classroom for Auburn University urban forestry students, who earned
class credit for taking part.
"One of the things we like to do in the urban
forestry class is provide students with real-life situations,"
says Dr. Brenda Allen, an Extension forester and Auburn University
associate professor of forestry. "This planting gives us a
real-life situation where they’re working with a community project
with volunteer involvement."
"As I like to tell my students, urban forestry
is as much about people as trees."
Other Auburn University students are also
benefiting.
After choosing to locate in Alabama, Honda purchased
a 1,350-acre site for plant construction, but currently plans to
develop only about 700 acres for use with the manufacturing
facility. Much of the rest may be used for hunting, fishing, walking
trails and other forms of outdoor recreational activities for the
plant’s employees.
Four Auburn University seniors and a graduate
student are working on a plan with Honda to determine how this land
can best be used to benefit nature and employees alike.
Local students have profited too. Members of a local
school-sponsored Junior Master Gardener Club and their teachers
visited the plant on April 12 to place and distribute trees, though
rainy weather prevented most of these activities. The group also
toured the plant to learn about how technology is being used in the
facility. Honda provided transportation and lunch for the students.
The tree-planting project marks a milestone in a
relationship between Honda and the Calhoun County Extension office
that began before the company chose to locate in Alabama.
"When the plant was first being considered, Dr.
Allen and I were contacted by ADECA (Alabama Department of Economic
and Community Affairs) and asked to come and look at the site,"
West recalls. "We were told that Honda was interested in ways
to save trees during construction."
West was determined from the start to ensure the
relationship between Honda and his office remained mutually
beneficial.
"Honda intends to be actively involved in the
community through volunteer and youth programs," West says,
"but I’ve never wanted our relationship with them to be a
one-way street in which only we profit."
"I wanted them to know from the beginning that
our office wanted to help them be successful and sought nothing in
return."
(Source: Dr.
David West, Calhoun County Extension Coordinator, 256-237-1621)
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