Tree Commission plans Arbor Day

Rachel Mendell — Staff

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Arbor Day plans and replant­ing at Amman’s Reser­voir were major dis­cus­sion top­ics dur­ing the Galion Street Tree Com­mis­sion meet­ing on Feb. 18. The com­mis­sion final­ized details for Arbor Day 2013, which is April 26. Each year, tree seedlings are passed out to third graders at Galion Inter­me­di­ate School. One mem­ber raised an issue that they must pur­chase the seedlings in incre­ments of 100, buy there are 168 stu­dents. It was resolved to buy 200 and give the remain­der to teach­ers or plant at reservoirs.

Another part of the cel­e­bra­tion dis­cussed at past meet­ings is a poster con­test. That evening, Com­mis­sioner Cathy George said she talked to the art teach­ers at the school, who will help with the con­test on the con­di­tion that con­tes­tants even­tu­ally get their art­work returned.

The com­mis­sion decided to open the con­test to all fourth graders and dis­cussed the cri­te­ria and theme. Because the con­test is vol­un­tary, they set­tled on leav­ing the theme open to some­thing like “What Arbor Day means to you.”

In new busi­ness, City Man­ager Gene Toy showed the Com­mis­sion a ten­ta­tive three-year plan for replant­ing trees at the reser­voir, in order to replace trees removed last year for the instal­la­tion of elec­tric poles. Toy explained that the inten­tion is not to plant seedlings, but juve­nile trees. The impor­tance of hav­ing land­marks at the reser­voir for the the cross coun­try course was also taken into con­sid­er­a­tion, as the coaches were con­sulted to ensure new plant­i­ngs would not inter­fere with the course.

The com­mis­sion looked over the project and was favor­able to its mov­ing for­ward. After the meet­ing, Toy explained that the replant­ing plan is in the early stage of the process. Now that the com­mis­sion has given its approval, a local tree nurs­ery will be con­tacted for a consultation.

Also, Toy said the city needs to get rid of 72 stumps through­out the city. How­ever, 150 trees have been slated for removal by request from landown­ers, so it would be more cost effec­tive to wait until those trees are cut down and have all of the stumps removed.

It was also announced dur­ing the meet­ing that Galion will receive a mon­e­tary award from Tree City, USA. A new tree (or trees) will be planted using the funds. Com­mis­sion­ers dis­cussed pos­si­ble loca­tions and ten­ta­tively set­tled on the play­ground at Heise Park, because a new tree would replace two dead trees that have been cut down. As far as which species, the som­er­set red maple is a likely candidate.

The Street Tree Commission’s next meet­ing is April 1 at 7 p.m., at the City Munic­i­pal Building.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Feb 20 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.