Oregon Arbor Week Celebration

area to be planted

3d rendering of trees

Earlier this year, McMinnville was recognized as a Tree City USA community for the 22nd consecutive year! With the help of McMinnville High School students and a grant from Oregon Community Trees, McMinnville’s status as a Tree City USA community will continue to blossom through 2019.  The City of McMinnville will hold an Oregon Arbor Week and Arbor Day celebration, Saturday, April 13, 2019 from 9:00am-11:00am.  Oregon Arbor Week, which is April 7th – 13th, is a chance to celebrate trees and recognize all of the benefits that they provide to our state, city and local community. National Arbor Day is April 26, 2019, and will be celebrated nation-wide in communities of all shapes and sizes.

Jamie Fleckenstein, Associate Planner and a licensed landscape architect, who is the planting project coordinator for McMinnville, says he’s excited to gather the community to join in planting three trees at McMinnville High School.  The trees will replace two hazardous trees that were recently removed from the campus.  The new trees will be a species that will be more appropriate for the area, grow to provide shady relief to the Bear Hugs preschool playground, and add to McMinnville’s community forest.

Oregon Community Trees has awarded a grant to the City of McMinnville to help support the tree planting event.    

 “The grant from Oregon Community Trees will also help pay for materials for a plaque to commemorate the planting as an Arbor Week event,” said Fleckenstein. “Students in the Fabrication and Welding course will produce the plaque.”

Other students will be engaged in the planting project - McMinnville High School students who are studying within the Natural Resources track will assist with the tree planting.

Grants Committee Chair Morgan Holen said Oregon Community Trees promotes healthy urban and community forests. “We assist community groups, local governments and schools throughout the state with expertise and grants that support leadership, education, awareness and advocacy for urban and community forestry,” Holen said.

This year eight cities in Oregon are receiving a combined total of $4,000 in grants from Oregon Community Trees. One criteria for receiving an Arbor Week grant is being a Tree City USA, a status McMinnville has held for 22 years.

McMinnville is one of 63 Tree City USA communities throughout Oregon. The association assists communities in managing and expanding their inventory of public trees. Tree City USA communities follow four standards:

• Establish and operate a Tree Board or Department
• Adopt a Tree Care ordinance
• Document at least $2 per capita toward tree planting
• Pass an official Arbor Day proclamation that celebrates Arbor Day
  
  

For more information about Tree City USA, you can visit their website here.   For more information about the Arbor Day Tree Planting event, contact Jamie Fleckenstein at (503) 474-4153 or jamie.fleckenstein@mcminnvilleoregon.gov.