Fayette County will be visited by an annual spring cycling adventure that will also bring several new trees to the community.
TRECYCLE, founded by cyclist Brent Devitt of Kettering, is an annual cycling event that makes its way along trails and through communities in Ohio to raise awareness and support for re-planting native trees to replace ash trees that have been lost to the Emerald Ash Borer.
TRECYCLE will be passing through Washington Court House this weekend while on a 180-mile route through Greene, Fayette and Ross counties. Devitt will travel along the newly renamed Paint Creek Trail, riding around 75 miles a day the first and last day with a more leisurely 30 miles on Saturday.
According to a press release from the city, $2,000 has been raised this year through an online fund drive to plant 15 trees in Jamestown and Chillicothe in addition to the trees in Washington C.H.
“This is thanks to Don Creamer,” Joe Denen, Washington Court House City Manager, said. “Don does an excellent job with these type of activities and it’s Arbor Day (Friday). So its a great day to plant trees and talk about TRECYCLE. Part of TRECYCLE is that communities they cycle through, they plant some trees in, so it is a nice way to pick up some extra trees and a nice opportunity to highlight that effort. It is just a nice and pleasant event. People, bicycles, spring, trees, what could be bad?”
Devitt founded the organization in 2015 with a seven-day ride and planted trees in seven different parks along the Ohio Erie trail. Since then nearly $6,000 in funds have helped plant over 335 trees in over 15 communities spanning from the Little Miami Trail near Loveland all the way to Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Ohio and Erie Canal Reservation, in Cleveland. According to Don Creamer, member of the tree committee, the trees for the county were received on Monday and are already planted.
The six to 10 foot trees are delivered to the cities with the assistance of Dan Struve of QRST Nursery.
