Vodehnal plants trees

Post date: Jul 07, 2013 12:7:5 AM

Beautifying Johnson Lake tree by tree

By MALENAWARD Hub Regional Correspondent | Posted: Saturday, July 6, 2013 1:00 pm http://kearneyhub.com

JOHNSON LAKE — Stan Vodehnal isn’t sure why he likes planting trees, but he knows he likes it. Maybe it started with gardening and the thrill of watching something small grow bigger and reveal its usefulness. “You can take pride when you know you put in a 6-foot tree and in 10 years it’s 20 feet tall,” he said. He planted his first tree as an adult in the yard of the first house in Omaha where he and his wife, Stephanie, lived. They still go by from time to time to see how that tree is doing.

For Arbor Day one year, a bank in Cozad offered its customers a pine pencil tree to plant. It was no more than a slender tree in a bag with its roots wet and no dirt, Vodehnal said. He asked if he could have more than one and planted them. That was 10 years ago. Vodehnal’s tree planting passion has evolved to benefit the Johnson Lake Hike and Bike Trail. The lake has been his home for 18 years, and he’s a trail committee member. Even before the trail was laid, Vodehnal planned for and planted trees. He continues to add them, envisioning how they will benefit trail users in the future. “It may not look like much now, but in five years people will be able to come and enjoy the shade,” Vodehnal said. In one section there are four honey locusts planted on each side of the concrete path. “It’s going to be cool, I think,” said Vodehnal of the tunnel-like canopy they will form someday. Another spot has two cherry trees, which were selected because they won’t grow too tall and interfere with the overhead power lines. The fruit will also attract the neighbors, as does the community garden nearby.

Trail users will find a variety of trees waiting for them. A walking stick offers twisted and contorted branches, and a northern catalpa has large heart-shaped leaves and showy trumpet-shaped white flowers in the spring, Vodehnal said. He said the trees are obtained from various sources. Some are purchased at full price, and some are bought when discounted at the end of the year. Vodehnal said Lewis Greenscape in Grand Island has

donated trees it doesn’t want to winter from its end-of-the-year stock. “It’s a mix and match,” Vodehnal said of the varieties. He also has planted fiesta maples, aspens, oaks, golden raindrop crabapples, flowering crabapples, river birches and elms.

Vodehnal hasn’t tracked how many trees he has planted. He said someone told him there were more than 60 trees in the North Point section of the lake, but he doesn’t count them. Sometimes, Vodehnal invites neighbors to help plant trees. He emphasized he isn’t the only one working to beautify the area through trees. Neighbors water the trees along the trail near where they live and mow the surrounding areas. Two or three years ago, Vodehnal planted two matching memorial trees, royal red maples, near where fireworks are discharged each year. One was for his father, Irvin “Vodie” Vodehnal, and one was for his brother Bruce Vodehnal. Months later, he received a phone call informing him that a buck deer had rubbed the bark off and killed the tree planted in memory of his brother. He replaced it with a summer splendor maple donated by Liens Lawn Service. The tree was questionable because there was an entire side with dead limbs, but Vodehnal said he thought it seemed perfect because his brother struggled with a personal issue his entire life.

He recently noticed the tree is leafing out on the bad side — a sign that it’s going to make it.

Another memorial tree, a gingerbread paperbark maple with brown peeling bark, was planted late at night last December before family members left to go home following the funeral of Courtney Hanson. Vodehnal said he bought the tree on his way home from the funeral in Hastings. He called the families

and asked if they wanted to help plant it. Some people were dressed in pajamas and huddled in blankets to keep warm during the planting. They

used flashlights to see. It was a touching, impromptu moment, he said.

Vodehnal plans to have plaques made to mark the memorial trees, but cringes at a marker already erected in circular area of the trail that recognizes him and Stephanie for trees along the trail. “I do want to stress it’s not just me,” he said