ROGERS, Ark. — A Rogers man is on a mission to restore trees that were destroyed in the recent Memorial Day weekend tornadoes in Arkansas.
Noah Furuseth is heading toward his senior year at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he will study urban sustainability in Copenhagen, Denmark. He found his passion for his environment after watching a video on sustainable food systems.
"I remember writing down in my notes in February, need to build a garden. And then the pandemic came, and of course, the lockdown was going on, and so I was like, Well, this is a perfect time to start a garden," Furuseth said.
Furuseth would return home during the breaks to care for the garden he started. This year he returned home halfway through May, not knowing the extent to which his skills would be needed.
"The tornado came, and everything was decimated," Furuseth said. "We lost the mother trees and so many people everywhere. I mean the city, just the skyline looks different."
Noah took saplings from his backyard and across Rogers then "nurtured them into young trees ready for planting." He's now selling the baby trees at the Rogers Local Food and Art Market in an effort to "help preserve the native flora but also contribute to the health of the local ecosystem."
"His efforts help heal the landscape after the tornadoes and promote ecological awareness and sustainability," said Karen Wagaman, vice president of Downtown Development of Rogers Lowell Chamber.
"There's just really more potential and use than ever to be starting a new tree canopy and rebuilding what we've lost," Furuseth said. "Everywhere we live, whether it's a city or not, has the potential to grow forests, to grow plants, to grow gardens. And really, I just want more people to recognize that we need to have gardens everywhere. We need to have forests where we can, if we can grow plants somewhere we should."
Noah is selling the following species:
- Common Blue Violet
- Various herbs, beans, squash, and more
- Eastern Redbud
- Green Ash
- Black Cherry
- Maple
Prices for the trees are around $3 to $5.
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