LIMESTONE – Tusculum University students and a local Cub Scout pack joined forces to help a state park decimated by the flooding from Hurricane Helene with its recovery efforts.
Tusculum students Alexis Roessler, left, and Maria Torres plant a tree at David Crockett Birthplace State Park.
Tusculum student Clay Mendez, right, instructs Cub Scout Mason Dunn in digging a hole to plant a tree.
Eleven students in the Serving Learning in Northeast Tennessee class collaborated with Sequoyah Council Cub Scout Pack 93 Saturday, April 5, to plant 50 seedlings in David Crockett Birthplace State Park. Participants broke into three groups and planted various types of trees in spots selected by Chelsea Walters, a park ranger at the 105-acre park. Officials with the park estimate 60-65% of the grounds were flooded when the aftereffects of Helene roared through Greene County and other parts of the region.
“As a fellow member of the Greene County community, Tusculum was touched when we learned about the damage the park sustained,” said Dr. Shelby Ward, assistant professor of political science and the teacher of the service learning class. “We are pleased to be able to assist the park on its road toward recovery and to team with the Cub Scouts. These trees will help the park. They will contribute to better air quality and biodiversity, and it is also important that all of the trees we are planting are native to Tennessee.”
Dr. Ward said the theme of this year’s service learning class is environmentalism and sustainability, and she wants students to learn about what is involved in the upkeep of a state park. She also wants them to understand the importance of state parks and the way they help build community spaces and conserve native trees, plants and animals. Through their work at the park, the students will help contribute to those values, she said.
Left to right: Tusculum student Zothile Mbhamali, Cub Scout Lucas Hensley and Tusculum student Liam Van Deventer prepare to plant a tree.
Tusculum student Faith Gibbs, right, and Cub Scout Cole Lambert, maneuver the dirt around a new tree.
Tusculum’s participation in the event was an offshoot of Tennessee Tree Day, which was held a week earlier. Tusculum served as one of the distribution sites and gave out more than 900 seedlings from the Doak House Museum with the help of the service leaning class. In return for serving as a host site, the university received an additional 50 seedlings and decided to plant them at David Crockett Birthplace State Park.
In 2024, Tusculum planted the 50 trees on campus, but Dr. Peter Noll, professor of public history and museum studies, recognized no additional trees were needed at the Doak House or on the Tusculum Nature Trail. As a result, he suggested the university plant them in another beneficial location. Enter David Crockett Birthplace State Park.
“Being able to bring volunteer groups to the park, even if the facility is not yet open to the public, reconnects the park to the community,” Dr. Ward said. “It provides a way for students to get into the community, reinforcing our commitment to civic engagement, and enables us to partner with the Cub Scouts.”
Dr. Ward had reached out to the Cub Scouts during the fall semester about working together, so when this opportunity at the park arose, she broached the idea again. Happily, schedules aligned for both to jointly complete the work.
Chelsea Walters, a ranger at David Crockett Birthplace State Park, holds seedlings to be planted.
Tusculum student Clay Mendez, left and Cub Scout Mason Dunn put dirt around the seedling.
Cameron Abelseth, cubmaster for Pack 93, said the pack decided to assist in the tree planting because of its commitment to the community. He said the pack is fond of the park and likes to hike and camp there.
“Our leaders and the children genuinely appreciated participating,” Abelseth said. “Children thrive on feeling needed and useful, as it provides them with a sense of purpose. Today, they witnessed the impact of community collaboration, beyond their pack, coming together to help.”
Abelseth said the Cub Scouts looked up to the Tusculum students as exemplary leaders. He noted that the students demonstrated patience with the Cub Scouts and took the time to help them and instruct them on proper procedures.
Walters, who organized the activities on the grounds, had similar thoughts on the value of the work accomplished.
“My main priority for this event was community engagement because we have not been able to have many groups out here, except guided ones, in the last six months to see the parts that have been damaged as well as those that were not,” Walters said. “It is also important for restoring the biodiversity of the park. We lost a lot of poplar trees, dogwoods, sycamore trees and redbuds, so replacing a lot of those trees with 50 potential trees is a good first step.”
Many of the seedlings that were planted Saturday will bear fruit – black cherry, red mulberry and elderberry. Those were put in the ground in the area of the proposed location for the new homestead to replace the one that was destroyed. That is important because the park tries to represent a time period in which people still hunted, gathered and grew their own crops. Other trees will help with creek bank stabilization, such as tulip poplar and white oak trees, which will have strong root systems.
Tusculum University students, Cub Scout members and leaders and staff from David Crockett Birthplace State Park pose for a photo after completing their work.
Having so many people at the park planting the trees enabled the job to be completed much more quickly.
“If it were just me and two other staff members planting these 50 trees, it would take an entire day or more,” Walters said. “With this many people helping out, it takes a whole day’s job and cuts it more than in half. Many hands make light work.”
The park has no rough time to reopen at its full capacity, as it is still in the process of redesigning the facility. Walters said the park is working toward a soft opening of a trail and hopes to have a date for that soon.
Tusculum’s students enjoyed their experience at the park. Sydney Grant, a junior who is pursuing degrees in criminal justice and psychology, said this was the first time she had been to the park.
“It was definitely meaningful,” she said. “I didn’t know the state park was still closed, but knowing that we are helping it reopen with new entrances and proposed new homestead areas by planting the trees was nice. It was also good to help out the Cub Scouts with their work, too. This event helped emphasize the importance of going out and helping, especially in a small community like this and a big event like Hurricane Helene impacts the area. You need all the help you can get obviously. It also showed how much of a difference just a few of us can make coming out and helping with that.”
Liam Van Deventer, a senior seeking a degree in political science, said it was nice to plant the trees. He felt they were placed in the right spots.
“Getting out there and being in the community and helping the community in whatever way we can, like we did with our last project, was good,” he said.
Additional information about the park is available at https://tnstateparks.com/parks/david-crockett-birthplace. To learn more about the university, please visit www.tusculum.edu. People can discover more about the Cub Scout pack at https://www.facebook.com/p/Cub-Scout-Pack-93-100089602849511/.