Earlier this spring KYCA organized a community fruit tree planting project in the Houghton/Hancock communities where we planted 15 total trees (pear, plum, apple, peach and pear). We have launched a fundraiser to have signs installed for the trees so that passerbys for the trees will be able to know what kind of fruit tree it is and that they are welcome to harvest the fruit! Please check out our fundraiser page and contribute what you can, or share with other community members, friends, and family.

Keweenaw Youth for Climate Action (KYCA), funded by environmental activist Rob Greenfield’s organization, lead and organized a project to plant 15 fruit trees across the Houghton/Hancock communities. Our goal is to create more local food access, promote food sovereignty, increase community nutrition, and lead a project that brings our neighbors together with something fun that we can all nurture. Also, who doesn’t like having more free apples, pears, cherries, plums, and peaches around their parks and streets?

We posted fliers around town, advertised in local newspapers, and broadcast on local radio stations to look for people that were also committed to these goals and were willing to take care of the trees. Over a few months time, we were reached out to by many individuals and groups in the community that were willing to care for the trees.

In early spring 2021, KYCA received a call from Flowers by Sleeman, a local plant nursery in Houghton, letting us know that the trees had arrived and were ready for planting. It was empowering to see 20+ members of the community take time from their Saturday to come together and get all fifteen trees in the ground, fertilized and mulched. Over the summer, the caretakers have been watering the trees so that they will be well established for years to come to provide fruit for everyone.

For our last step of the project we are searching for funding to provide signs to label each tree with the type and variety of tree and mark it as a community fruit tree. We will be hiring a local artist and sign maker to design the signs and use local printing services to print the signs keeping all the funds within our community. We hope you can contribute to this project, even a small donation can help us reach our goal.