Anchorage Audubon Society to give away 10,000 spruce saplings

Anchorage Audubon has a little over one week to try and distribute 10,000 free white spruce saplings throughout Anchorage. 

The reason? To “offset the bird habitat and landscaping losses due to the Spruce Bark Beetle infestation in Anchorage” according to the Anchorage Audubon Society web page.

The impacts of spruce bark beetles in Anchorage is immediately evident – most can recognize the sight of grayish dead spruce among otherwise healthy trees throughout town. Recently, Anchorage has spent close to four million cleaning up spruce trees killed by beetles according to Alaska’s News Source. 

“You know, there’s an old saying in the tree business that the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago and the second best time is now,” said W. Keys, president of the Anchorage Audubon Society, “and that’s what we’re doing.”

Keys said that the impact of this project won’t be visible this summer, or possibly even in the next five years, “But in 10 or 15 years, it's gonna make a pretty big difference. And in 20 years, it's going to make a huge difference.”

The point of this project isn’t to reforest large areas like parks or forests, said Keys. Instead, the goal is to put a couple of trees in thousands of places throughout town. 

“We’re trying to put a couple trees in each lot, as many as we can,” said Keys. 

If not all of the spruce seedlings are distributed, they won’t go to waste. Multiple groups have offered to take any leftover trees when the distribution effort is done, said Keys. 

Over fifty volunteers will be distributing trees across Anchorage from Thursday, May 25 to Sunday, June 4th.

On June 2, trees can be found at the Eagle River Nature Center. On June 3, trees can be found at the South Anchorage Market, Spenard Market, Anchorage Farmers Market, Anchorage Garden Club Plant Sale, Wildflower Garden Club of Alaska Plant Sal, Eagle River Nature Center Music In The Mountains, and Paddling Fun Day at Goose Lake. On June 4, trees can be found at Alaska Mill & Feed. Distribution locations can be found on the Anchorage Audubon Society website. 

The spruce trees are free, and will come with planting instructions.