And the trees on the VA grounds have another issue not uncommon to many plantings around Helena: deer. Plantenberg showed the students a tree that would need to be removed after a rutting mule deer buck scraped his antlers and tore away the bark. To protect the new trees, they would install cages to keep deer at bay.

Leslie Holz, environmental program manager for the VA, said the size of the grounds requires constant upkeep by two employees in addition to a program that employs veterans as part of their rehabilitation.

“Being such an old campus, it’s a really big task with only two groundskeepers,” she said. “We’ve been losing a lot of our older trees, cottonwoods dying and even some of the elms … this is a great opportunity to diversify the trees across our campus.”

The crew had 19 trees to plant Monday, including maples, elms and hackberries, and plenty of eager Cottonwood students that jumped in to move dirt.

Christopher Taleff, the school’s co-director, said the event provided students the chance for some community-based learning.