Thank You to the Gratiot County Community Foundation

The Gratiot County Community Foundation has awarded us a generous grant in support of our Living Forest lesson that we do in the spring!

Second Graders Becoming a Living Forest:

Each year the Gratiot Conservation District gives the second graders in Gratiot County a free tree seedling. This past spring the kids had the opportunity to learn more about trees, the value and importance of them, and how to plant and care for their tree.

The second graders became a living forest! They learned to thin their forest by holding out their ‘branches’ so that they were rooted far enough apart, then received stuffed animals and paper towel rolls and books and magazines to learn about the animals that live in the forest and the reasons why trees are cut down to make the goods we use everyday. They learned about invasive bugs and forest fires and lightning and wind storms that cause us to lose trees.

These exercises helped the kids to recognize the importance of planting more trees to replace the ones that are lost.

This helped them to understand that trees are a renewable resource and that when they plant their little tree, they are helping to ensure that we will always have a thriving forest!

Altogether about 575 second graders in Gratiot County got to participate in the Living Forest lesson and almost 1,000 trees were donated to local kids!

This coming spring the Living Forest lessons will be sponsored by the Gratiot County Community Foundation from the Clyde and Maude Mizer Memorial Fund! We wish to thank them for their generous support!

Call for Directors

The Gratiot Conservation District is in need of a couple of new Directors and new Associate Directors. If you are interested in being considered to be on our Board of Directors, please call our office at 989-875-3050 for more details and how to be considered for one of our open positions.