Posted: 6/10/2024
SNR doctoral student coordinates Williamsburg Park tree planting
By Alexandra Coffelt
New trees are taking root in Williamsburg Park thanks to volunteers from across Lincoln. Andrew Mwape, a Nebraska doctoral student, organized the planting of 25 trees on May 24 with support from the School of Natural Resources, Lincoln Parks and Recreation, Citizens’ Climate Lobby and the East Lincoln Rotary Club.
After a demonstration from Parks and Recreation staff, volunteers spread throughout the park and got to work digging holes and placing young oak, elm and hackberry trees at the correct depth. They spread mulch around the newly planted saplings and pounded in the stakes that will support each tree for the next few years.
Once the last tree was in the ground, the group reconvened under a picnic pavilion to celebrate the final planting of the spring season. Mwape and other Rotarians discussed how their efforts to add trees to public spaces aligns with the organization’s mission of community service.
Mwape has served as president of the East Lincoln Rotary Club since July 2023 and has helped plant several hundred trees in the past year alone. His passion for trees, however, emerged during his youth.
"My childhood memories are of my great-grandfather's village where he kept a lot of trees and was very cautious of nature," Mwape said. "So, when I grew up and I was looking to get a career, I decided to get into environmental engineering and specialized in energy and climate change."
With his great-grandfather’s model of environmental stewardship in mind, Mwape founded Zambia Environmental Advocacy and Community Health Organization while an undergraduate at Copperbelt University in Zambia. The nonprofit’s goal, Mwape said, is to assemble resources and volunteers to plant trees, as well as to raise awareness for environmental conservation.
Now a member of its advisory board, Mwape has continued to support tree planting in Zambia through his work as a Rotarian in Lincoln. A recent partnership established an orchard of fruit trees in collaboration with Zambia’s Forestry Department and the Rotary Club of Ndola Central.
Mercy Kipenda, Mwape’s wife and a former project manager for the Zambian organization, said she shares her husband’s enthusiasm for this and other tree planting efforts.
"I’m looking at 30 years from now when it’s going to be an actual tree," the natural resource sciences master’s student said. “It’s very rewarding."
Mwape said that his doctoral studies in climate impacts and assessment have solidified his appreciation for all that trees offer. They play an important role in improving air quality and supporting life on Earth in less tangible ways.
"Trees add beauty to the environment . . . and our interactions with trees give us sanity," Mwape said. "It’s the order of nature."