A Bozeman man is literally on a mission to beautify the Lewis and Burke Dog Park.
“I’m just surprised,” Andy Oliver said. “The response was incredible.”
It was the unfortunate death of someone very close to Oliver that planted the seed in Oliver’s mind to raise money to plant trees at the Lewis and Bourke Dog Park.
“My friend’s name was Christine Barnes,” Oliver said. “Her memorial proposal was to plant a tree in her honor.”
But Oliver thought why not plant a bunch of trees in her honor.
“This is a pretty barren place,” said Oliver. “There are hardly any trees.”
So he made an agreement with the city that if he could come up with the money to buy a tree, he could plant one.
He started a GoFundMe, pledging to match the first $400 raised. In just a few hours, he raised $500.
As of Wednesday, October 11th:
“We raised $1,125,” Oliver said. “Too much money means you have too many trees to water. That’s part of the deal. You have to water them for the next two years.”
Also part of the deal is finding people to help with watering, which Deputy Mayor Terry Cunningham says is a major effort.
“I personally helped water the existing trees in this park for two years using a wheel barrel,” Cunningham said. “This can prove to be a very labor-intensive job.”
Cunningham said the tree requires 15 gallons of water a week to keep it alive.
“That means three 5-gallon buckets per tree,” Cunningham said.
Still, he is encouraging volunteers to step up to help Andy Oliver.
“It’s going to take a long time for them to grow,” Oliver said. They’ll continue to grow after I’m gone, but it’s nice to be able to say, ‘We did this.’
Oliver has scheduled a meeting at noon Oct. 14 at the dog park to discuss the watering plan.To donate, please visit Oliver’s GoFundMe page.
