The Urbana Park District and Anita Purves Nature Center partnered with Yankee Ridge Elementary School, the City of Urbana and other civic groups to help plant trees to celebrate Arbor Day 2019.
The entire school learned about trees from Urbana Park District educators and helped plant new trees.
“Yankee Ridge recently had to remove some trees due to renovations,” said Rich McMahon, Park District Maintenance Supervisor. “They wanted to plant new trees, so we partnered with them on Arbor Day. We planted 10 tree total. They are good, hearty trees that will live for generations at Yankee Ridge,” he added.
The new trees are:
- Three Swamp White Oaks
- Two Frontier Elms
- Two American Sentry Lindens
- One Royal Star Magnolia
- One Japanese Tree Lilac Ivory Silk
- One Heritage Oak
Urbana Mayor Dianne Marlin read an Arbor Day Proclamation and City Arborist Mike Brunk, talked about how important trees are and the history of Arbor Day. The students visited several stations where they learned more about trees and helped mulch them.
Urbana is celebrating its 44th year as a Tree City USA community. Tree City USA is sponsored by The National Arbor Day Foundation in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. The Tree City USA program provides direction, technical assistance, public attention, and national recognition for urban and community forestry programs in thousands of towns and cities in the U.S. and worldwide.