Kris Reed of the volunteer “Tree Care Committee” asked Wrangell School Board members Monday night if they would consider using space in front of the elementary school to plant a future fruit tree orchard.
Wrangell was granted an orchard last year through the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) Communities Take Root program, after the Wrangell Medical Center submitted an application.
FTPF Aborist Rico Montenegro visited Wrangell last month to scout locations of where some 30 to 40 trees could be planted to create the orchard. Reed said Monday the top spot was the space in front of Evergreen Elementary School, between the road and the school.
“Rico was very excited about the school as a site for the fruit tree orchard,” Reed told School Board members.
At most, that space could handle 40 trees, Reed said based on Montenegro’s advice. A fence would likely have to be built by the road to protect the trees, which would be “dwarf trees” between 12 and 15 feet tall, Reed said. At that height, school children would be able to pick the fruit.
School Board member Rick Groshong said he thought the elementary school was the best place for the orchard out of the options he has heard.
Another idea for the orchard location is an area behind the current WMC, but that site would need some work to make the soil plantable and it is shaded, Reed said.
“One of the nice things about the school as opposed to that location is that it has so much more easily accessed by the public,” she said.
Groshong added no one would be able to see the orchard should it be planted behind the WMC.
However, some school board members were concerned about who would be responsible for maintaining the orchard and any costs associated with caring for the trees or building the fence.
“We can’t take on any monitoring responsibilities for it,” said School Board President Susan Eagle.
The grant from the FTPF covers the cost of the fruit trees and having someone from the foundation come to Wrangell to demonstrate how to plant them, Reed said. Possibly building a fence for the orchard is a project Reed said she has taken on and it wouldn’t be the school’s responsibility to build.
“It wouldn’t be something that the school is expected to do,” she said.
Also, while students could pick the fruit from the trees, the Tree Care Committee, which is currently made up of four community members, have volunteered to make sure the orchard is cared for, Reed said. That responsibility would not fall on the school district, should the orchard be planted at the elementary school, she said.
Eagle asked Reed to approach the City and Borough of Wrangell to figure out what the necessary steps would be to plant an orchard at the school. Eagle said the board would put the topic of the orchard on its agenda for next month’s meeting.
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