MARFA — The Chinati Foundation and Project Homeleaf, an environmental conservation organization for Presidio youth, joined forces for a public tree-planting workshop last Saturday — adding a total of 25 new Arizona cypress trees to Chinati’s grounds.
Ramon Rodriguez, who founded Project Homeleaf in 2018 as a Presidio ISD middle schooler, said the event was good exposure for the nonprofit, which has always sought to expand its green technology and climate awareness initiatives outside of Presidio to the entire Big Bend region.
“We want to offer these services, and we really want to expand,” Rodriguez said. “I think everyone there now knows who we are and what we do.”
Rodriguez, now an education undergrad at the University of Texas Permian Basin, led around 25 volunteers in the tree planting demonstrations along with four other Project Homeleaf ambassadors — PISD sophomore Liyah Reyna, juniors Karla Valdivia and Mario Leyva and PISD graduate Evelyn Renteria.
The young environmentalists explained to gathered volunteers the importance of watering the pre-dug holes before placing the trees and touched on fertilizer and soil types as well as planting techniques. Rodriguez said he was glad that the workshop attracted a diverse age range of volunteers. “Everyone shoveling and planting with a smile on their face, I think that’s really cool,” he said.
The tree-planting process is not only practical but sentimental, he said — volunteers gain satisfaction watching the baby trees they planted grow into adults. “They were all very happy doing it as volunteers, planting trees, bringing new life,” Rodriguez said. “One of my crew members said they thought that later on [people will recall], ‘Oh, I planted that tree,’ years later and it’s bigger. It held that value.”
The Chinati-Project Homeleaf partnership was made possible by Chinati’s education team and funding from #startsmall — a grant fund from Jack Dorsey. Chinati Director of Preservation and Planning Stephen Martin said the practice of land stewardship, which the museum is actively engaged in, “requires an openness to experts across the field,” and the youth of Project Homeleaf were brought in to share their ecological expertise.
“We consider Ramon and his team to be young leaders in the region, both in terms of arboriculture and agriculture,” Martin said. “Their care for trees, their incredible breadth of knowledge with regards to land, and it made for the perfect partnership.”
Local landscape designer Jim Martinez was also on hand to assist and share knowledge at the tree-planting workshop. Along with the planting of the 25 Arizona cypress on the north side of Chinati’s property, the museum, with the help of Martinez, has recently restored two of Judd’s original landscapes on the 340-acre grounds within the past six months.
A line of 22 cottonwood trees was planted along the edge of the property near the untitled works in concrete, and six pinyon pines — a species that succumbed to past beetle infestations — were planted near the Arena to restore a grid of 12 that Judd planted when he was alive.
“Judd was a believer in land stewardship, and we want to be very dedicated to that vision — not only the projects that Judd designed, but also the landscape that was there when Judd arrived,” Martin said.
In time, with proper watering, the newly planted Arizona cypress could stretch to a height of 25-30 feet, acting as a much-needed windscreen for the rest of the Chinati property, Martin said. “We have the 25 trees on an irrigation system, and we’ll work out a watering schedule over the next few months and monitor their health and progress.”
To keep up with Project Homeleaf, follow the organization on Instagram @Project_Homeleaf and Facebook @Project Homeleaf.