By Joseph Mesa
Greenville & Hockessin Life
At 9 a.m. on Nov. 8, the autumn sun warmed the damp ground at Middle Run Valley Natural Area, where more than one hundred volunteers—toddlers standing on tiptoe beside parents, scout troops, retirees with gray hair and steady shovels—gathered for the annual tree-planting event. The ground still held the softness of rain from the night before and the scent of fresh soil and wet leaves in the air. In between the gentle breeze and the chirping of crickets and birds, the metallic clink of hammers driving stakes into the earth echoed across the field.
Saturday’s tree planting, coordinated by the Delaware Nature Society (DNS), continued a decades-long reforestation campaign at the 860-acre park northwest of Newark. According to the DNS, the Middle Run Valley Valley Natural Area has more than 50,000 trees and shrubs planted to date.
Most holes had been pre-drilled the day before by county staff, and hundreds of potted native trees—oak, maple, sycamore, and pawpaw—waited in neat rows. Groups of 10 volunteers were instructed in proper planting technique by DNS staff and seasoned helpers—how to set the tree at proper depth, stake it for support, and water it to keep the roots firm in the moist ground. Within minutes, the field transformed into a patchwork of motion: tamping soil, pouring water, and tying trees upright with stakes before enclosing them in protective cages.
“It has been going on in different areas through the Middle Run Natural area for about a good 30 years,” said Kristen Travers, the director of conservation. “It’s all driven by volunteers who come out for these tree-planting events. We have scout groups, and the University of Delaware’s Epsilon Eta out here today.”
For Joe Sebastiani, DNS’s director of land development, the event takes a lot of preparation.
“We’ve got to pick a spot that can accommodate a large group for parking,” he explained. “We decide what kinds of trees we want from native nurseries, and the county pre-drills most of the holes. Once people show up, we just instruct them how to plant correctly so the trees survive.”
Sebastiani added that Middle Run has been the focus of reforestation since the early 1990s.
“Some of the older plantings are now a forest,” he said. “If you walked into them, you wouldn’t even recognize it as a planting. You’d just think, wow, I’m in the woods.”
Each November, volunteers return to continue expanding the forest, filling in the open meadows and strengthening the buffers that protect the watershed. “The planting is the easy part,” Sebastiani said. “The long-term part is what happens afterward. We have to maintain these areas for 20 or 30 years, otherwise invasive plants will choke out everything we’re planting.”
That ongoing care, he explained, is what keeps the reforestation effort sustainable. Crews and volunteers remove invasive vines and grasses that smother native growth. Over time, the patches of young trees merge into dense woodland that stabilizes soil, cools creeks, and filters runoff before it reaches Newark’s water supply. According to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) website (dnrec.deleware.gov), the White Clay Creek watershed—which Middle Run helps feed—supplies a large portion of the city’s drinking water.
Reforestation projects like this one reduce sediment, improve oxygen levels for aquatic life, and create vital habitat corridors for birds and pollinators. By late morning, a plethora of new trees stood upright, caged and staked in rows that traced the curve of the forest. Kendall Summers, the county’s Parks Division Manager, recalled one family from a past planting.
“A friend had her young kids come one year,” she said. “They planted a tree, they named it, and they would come back to the park and say, ‘Let’s go visit Peter’ and they’d watch it grow. It’s one of the most rewarding parts of my job.”
The social impact, she added, is just as important.
“You’re passing on this knowledge and care for the environment to younger generations,” Summers said. “If they are not exposed to it when they are young, they are not gonna care for it when they are older.”
Middle Run Valley looked much the same as it did at the beginning of the day —still, green, and open—but beneath its surface, hundreds of new roots had taken hold. In time, this patch of land will become another stretch of forest, merging with those planted decades before. The DNS hosts tree plantings and habitat restoration events several times a year, relying heavily on volunteers. Those interested in joining future efforts can find sign-ups and event listings at delawarenaturesociety.org, or follow the organization’s announcements on social media.