PHOTO OP-ED: Tree planters at work in the park

Workers from WisCorps, a state version of the federal volunteer agency AmeriCorps, were at work last week catching up with delayed tree planting in Ozaukee County parks. WisCorps workers Dylan Kirsten (left) and Max Platt-Devlin were photographed at Tendick Park in the Town of Saukville. Plans to plant thousands of trees in the new Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve and other parks were set back when funding for Americorps, whose volunteers were scheduled to do the work, was cut by the Trump administration. The county turned to WisCorps to get a start on the plantings. Unlike AmeriCorps, the county pays the state for WisCorps services. Hopes that AmeriCorps volunteers will be available to the county again rose last week when a federal court blocked the funding cuts in response to a lawsuit by Wisconsin and other states.     Photo by Sam Arendt