A crowd of 30 residents and friends gathered to celebrate the first year of the Plainfield Tree Alliance Arbor Day Weekend, to plant trees and saplings, and to welcome spring.  Supporters of the event, including the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture (NEC-ISA) were recognized.

Refreshments were served and new website tools were presented including new survey software, to be used this summer in our first inventory of the public trees in the town’s historic district. Then a crowd of 15 walked to the Town Library and planted the first of two white oaks. On Sunday, April 28, the Alliance gathered again to christen the alliance’s tree nursery, where saplings will be nurtured for later planting in public and private spaces. Five maple saplings were “heeled in” in a designated bit of turf, with the help of children who live in the neighborhood. This was followed by a walk in the adjoining nature sanctuary.

The NEC-ISA grant allowed the Alliance to purchase the trees and saplings, to serve refreshments, to print programs, posters, and banners, and to reach out to the community through social media and the local newsletter.

In short, the NEC-ISA grant helped get out the message, raise the Alliance's profile, and show they mean business when it comes to protecting, replanting, and maintaining Plainfield’s street trees.

On Friday, April 27^th the Town of Sandwich celebrated Arbor Day and expanded it to include the 2018 Household Hazardous Waste collection, which took place on Saturday, April 28^th. New England Chapter ISA Arbor Day Grant recipient and Sandwich Tree Warden, Justin O'Connor, provided a summary of their Arbor Day event:

Sandwich Tree Warden, Justin O’Connor, talks to students at Forestdale School during an Arbor Day presentation. Photo Credit: Karen Hunter

On April 27, I met with the second graders at the Forestdale School to discuss the importance of trees and what they mean to the environment. I brought in some of my tools and safety items to show the students. We discussed the importance of different types of tools. The biggest roar from this crowd of second graders was when I picked up and showed the group the chainsaw. I then picked up my hand pruners and compared them to the teacher’s red correction pen and explained how this simple tool can make an important and lasting impact on the tree. I went on to explain to the students that an October Glory Maple had been planted on the school grounds for that class. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go out and see the tree because it was raining. The program continued with some questions from the students, such as: what my favorite tree was, do I get paid for my job, what tree do I cut down most, and whether I only cut down trees or plant them too. The program ended with each of the students receiving two-foot-tall white spruce to take home and plant at their house. After the students received their tree, a handful of the students did come up to thank me.

The second part of the Arbor Day celebration was at the collecting of hazardous materials at the Oak Ridge School in Sandwich. This took place on April 28^th from 9 am to 1 pm.  Residents are allowed to bring mercury products, oil-based paints and stains, old and expired gasoline, pool chemicals, and pesticides. These items are collected and disposed of properly. Residents who dropped off an item were given two-foot-tall white spruce as a thank you.

The grant that was given to the Town of Sandwich by the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture made this program possible. The grant made it possible to buy the tree planted at the school and the saplings were given out to the students, as well as to the residents at the Household Hazardous Waste collection event.

On Friday, April 28^th, in celebration of Arbor Day, Mountain Tree Service performed the following community service projects:

Haymarket Commons Park in Stafford Springs, CT – Worked with the Stafford Garden Club to plant a Stewartia and a Japanese Maple. We also pruned a Locust and a Birch Tree. Our tree mascot passed out 50 Kousa Dogwood Saplings to local residents.

Assisted the Somers American Legion with planting a Pin Oak along the main entrance to the Somers school complex.

Handed out 100 Pin Oak seedlings (with planting instructions outlining the proper planting depth and watering procedures for students to follow with the families at home) to the 3rd-grade class at Mabelle B. Avery Elementary School

Town of Ellington  - Planted 4 Greenspire Lindens, 2 Red Sunset Maples at Brookside Park which is a large Sports facility in Ellington

Working with the Town of Somers town crew at Mill Pond in Somersville, we planted 2 Pin Oaks, 2 Sycamores, 2 Red Sunset Maples

The New England Chapter ISA issued the 2016 $1000 Arbor Day Grant to the Voice of the Forest Alliance Arbor Day activities. Including:

Memorial Tree Planting at the Mill Shady Lea, North Kingstown, RI

A Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) was planted in memory of Susan Dunley.

RI State House Arbor Day 2016 Ceremony

Central Falls Arbor Day Celebration Community barbeque & Tree planting including Coral Bark Maple (Acer palmatum) and a Bartlett Pear (Pyrus calleryana)

Arbor Care and Training Day at Yawgoo Valley Ski Area and Water Park -Work Day and tree planting of a Stewartia pseudocamellia.

PETERSHAM CENTER SCHOOL CELEBRATES ARBOR DAY
First Event of Week-Long Celebration - by Clarisse Hart

PETERSHAM—The Petersham Center School has a new tree in its schoolyard, and 12 young stewards committed to helping it thrive.

On Friday, April 17, to launch a week-long Arbor Day celebration, Petersham Tree Warden Melissa LeVangie and members of the Petersham Forest & Shade Tree Committee presented an Arbor Day program for the Center School 3rd grade.

Students learned about the importance of trees, how to count tree rings, and which insects are a danger to trees. Together they read aloud the poem “Let’s Plant a Tree” by Aileen Fisher.

With guidance, the students planted a thornless honeylocust tree near the school playground. When the tree was successfully planted and mulched, one student shouted, “We are the guardians of this tree!” The others joined in for an enthusiastic cheer: “Our tree!”

Teacher Tracy Smith said of the event, "This was a very special day for my third graders that certainly will not be forgotten. I'm proud of them for working as a team and wanting to care for 'their tree' from this point on."
All are encouraged to attend the family-friendly Arbor Day festival events to follow later this week. The events are free, with support from a grant by the New England Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture and a donation by Petersham resident Bill Purple.

On Friday, April 24, at 7:00 p.m. at the Petersham Memorial Library, LeVangie will present “Trees 102,” a discussion of the importance of trees, tree biology, and human impacts on trees. Attendees will leave with a free tree seedling.

On Saturday, April 25, on the Petersham Common, a full day of family-friendly Arbor Day activities will include tree climbing led by certified arborists, tree ID games, a tree-related relay obstacle course, an ask-an-arborist station, tree- themed snacks, and spoon-carving demonstrations. The event begins with a tree planting on the Common at 8:30 a.m.  Tree climbing and other activities will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

LeVangie says all are welcome: “April is the time of year to actively acknowledge the gifts given by trees. Come celebrate with the Petersham Forest and Shade Tree Committee, and have some fun!"

Bristol County Agricultural High School's Arboriculture department participates in Arbor Day every year.  This year our school celebrated Arbor Day on May 2, 2014.  We celebrated on our school's campus in Dighton, MA. For this year's event, our Arboriculture department cleaned up the area on campus that will later be used at the 2014 Bristol Aggie Tree Climbing Jamboree (our TCC) site and be utilized as a climbing lab for future generations of students to "learn the ropes".

This area needed to be reclaimed from invasive species that have been over-taking our native trees and destroying the ecosystem.  Their presence in the area hindered our capability to utilize the full species diversity provided to us on our beautiful campus for tree identification classes. The entire area had been neglected for years and is overrun by poison ivy, oriental bittersweet, and multiflora rose.  In order to have a safe and effective Jamboree, we had to reclaim the area by first removing all the invasive species form both ground level and aloft in the trees.  Next, we pruned the trees for health and elimination of some hazardous deadwood.

Our Arboriculture department enjoys sharing our industry with the rest of the community whenever possible.  We especially delight in sharing it with the rest of our school. Our department's Jamboree is an open event that invites the entire school to come and watch. We find that this is a great way to spread the word about what arboriculture really is.  We invite several local journalists to come, take pictures and write articles about our competition for the local newspapers. As part of the Arbor Day clean-up, we prepared a site the served as a safe place from which the spectators can watch. We removed more poison ivy, bittersweet, and rose as well as small trees and deadwood surrounding larger trees.

We used the Arbor Day Grand funds to buy apparel for the students to wear and promote Arbor Day. As previously stated, the arboriculture department enjoys sharing our industry with the community and our school. We were able to continue to raise awareness with the t-shirts. Students and strangers asked about our shirts promoting arboriculture. This lead to conversations about arboriculture: what it means, what we do, how we do it, etc.  It was simply another strategy utilized to teach others about arboriculture.

Our Arboriculture department is always looking for new and exciting ways to engage the community and spread the word about arboriculture.  We raise funds through firewood sales and we spread our funds to cover many different aspects of teaching and training. We participate in competitions outside our school as well as learn through our own Jamboree. The New England Chapter ISA Arbor Day Grant helped us continue to educate others, as well as providing our students the opportunity to continue to learn. Thank you.

NEC-ISA 2013 Arbor Day Grant
By Scott Harrington – Lenox, MA
Arbor Day 2013 was a huge success in Lenox, MA this year. Thanks to the $1000 grant we applied for and received from the New England Chapter ISA. We were able to hose a community tree planting ceremony at the new Roche Reading Park in the center of town. Between our raffle and donations from local businesses, we raised an additional $850 for the day’s activities.

With the grant money, we were able to donate 220 tree seedlings to the local Cub Scout packs, local schools, and community members. We were able to distribute 200 posters from the DEC commemorating Arbor Day with our State Tree on it. We posted flyers over the entire town and raised awareness of Arbor Day in our community. We were also able to provide trees to the town that will help us fulfill our requirements to re-activate our TREE CITY USA status with the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Through this process, we have been able to lay the groundwork for next year’s Arbor Day Celebration and have been able to connect with the Town Village Improvement Committee which has been very supportive and instrumental in making all of this happen.