CRESWELL — The City hosted its annual Arbor Day celebration on April 27 at Garden Lake Park, with a theme of birds, bees, and trees. There was a bird watching walk and BRING Recycling, one of the 15 organizations tabling, sold pre-made and DIY bird and bat houses at its booth. Also, the park gained some signage about common birds seen there. It features QR codes to learn about each bird species as well as a chart of which birds frequent the area during which months of the year.
The event also had packets of seeds to give out which would help the local monarch butterflies pollinate. And according to city councilor Norma Jean Osborn, the park will soon have a pollinator garden. Some rock will be cleared out, and native plants will be planted for pollination. While there were no trees planted at Garden Lake Park , 100 free trees were raffled to community members.
SPRINGFIELD — Willamalane focused on planting trees in parks because much of the ice storm’s damage. The impacts on the City’s tree cover will be seen for years to come, which is why Willamalane Park Foundation asked businesses to support tree plantings and ice storm recovery efforts.
Five local businesses contributed, including Northwest Community Credit Union, which planted trees at Pacific Park on April 24, and State Farm agent David Hersch and his team, who did the same at Lively Park on April 26.
Hersch
“As an agent, we see a lot of the claims and the damage that the ice storm caused firsthand, and we have customers from everywhere from just limbs on their property to houses being destroyed there. So this was our way of giving back a little bit to restore some of the trees and help our community have the natural beauty that it’s had in the past,” Hersch said.
The other three tree plantings for Systems West Construction, Astec Industries, and Oregon Community Credit Union are scheduled for Guy Lee Park, Bluebelle Park, and Pride Park.
Willamalane has been celebrating Arbor Day through different sponsored tree plantings. Above, the group is planting a tree at Lively Park.
COTTAGE GROVE — Although the City did not celebrate Arbor Day last week, on April 6, the Urban Forestry committee planted three trees in the planting strip along S. 5th St. between E. Madison Ave. and E. Monroe Ave.
The City also planted two trees in Coiner Park last month. The trees were donated by the Presbyterian Church’s Earth and Social Justice committee, and one of those trees is in memory of Susan Johnson, who was a founding member of the City’s Urban Forestry committee.
Richard Vasquez (left) and Justin Tidrick assisted the Urban Forestry committee in planting trees on April 6.
