Heavy rains and land development have certain parts of Brush Creek more resembling Mush Creek in Cranberry Township, prompting township officials in this Pittsburgh suburb to implement a $2.6 million plan to halt streambank erosion and improve water clarity.

With more work to be done, employees from our western Pennsylvania Green Team recently joined hands with the township and 90 students and teachers from Seneca Valley’s Ryan Gloyer Middle School in a cooperative effort to plant 100 redbud trees near the creek in a grassy park.

“We’re never going to drag you out of school and waste your time,” said Mike Manipole, a Seneca Valley health and physical education teacher and elected township supervisor, to the army of kids in bright yellow T-shirts. “You’re here for a very important purpose: stopping stream bank erosion, building habitat for animals and growing community!”

Trees play a vital role in stabilizing the environment by absorbing carbon, soaking up stormwater that can cause erosion and preserving streams and riverbanks while simultaneously beautifying the landscape. They also provide food and cover wildlife needs to thrive.

Jessica Shaffer, Environmental Scientist, who spearheads our company’s Green Teams and tree-planting initiative, passed along the finer points of tree-planting wisdom to her middle school crew to help ensure the trees thrive for many years.

“Once this baby tree is in the ground, you need to push the dirt down around her with your hands or your foot. If any air pockets in the dirt get on the root, it will kill the tree,” she said.

Dozens of kids and teachers fanned out through the muddy park, digging holes, planting saplings and wrapping them all in protective plastic tubes to prevent deer and rabbits from gobbling up the tiny trees.

Jason Zalewski, Environmental Scientist, who handles compliance monitoring of permits for transmission and distribution line projects, enjoyed getting kids excited about taking care of the environment.

“When you are seniors, you can come back and see all these trees you planted and how tall they grew,” he told the group of students.

The day’s labor helped FirstEnergy push past its milestone of 100,000 trees planted by volunteers across a six-state footprint since the effort began in 2020. This year, our employee volunteers are expected to plant more than 30,000 trees across FirstEnergy’s entire service area, with about a third of those trees in Pennsylvania.