10 Million trees being planted to aid in Chesapeake restoration

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Scott LaMar/WITF

Volunteers from F7M Trust plant hundreds of trees on a farm near Shippensburg as part of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership.

One of the best and easiest ways to clean up waterways, reduce sediment and improve the environment and fight climate change is to plant trees.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is in the midst of the Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership in an effort to restore the Bay. So far, about 5.5 million trees have been planted and the plan is to plant 10 million by 2025.

Recently, The Spark‘s Scott LaMar visited a tree planting project on a farm owned by Craig Alleman, near Shippensburg, where he spoke Kristen Hoke, the area restoration specialist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, “We like to say that trees are one of the most cost effective, best management practices to protect and improve water quality in addition to the benefits that we see from them for climate for mitigating climate change…They can take up nutrients. So they need that nitrogen and phosphorus, that runoff from a farm like the where we are today. They can reduce sedimentation. Their roots can hold that soil on the banks. And so they can actually reduce nutrients and sediment going to the Chesapeake Bay, which are our top three pollutants to the Chesapeake Bay.”

The trees on the Alleman farm were planted near a stream, which is important to reduce pollutants from going into the water and eventually into the Bay.

Hoke was asked how to learn more about planting trees,”I would suggest maybe Googling the Arbor Day Foundation which has lots of information out there on species, and they have great resources on the Internet. They also have lots of videos on how to plant properly, lots of material that you can utilize to make sure you’re planting the right tree in the right place in the right way.”