Photo courtesy of Janet Forbes.
The Mountain Brook Tree Commission will be giving all first-graders in the Mountain Brook school system an American beech sapling to celebrate the city’s public Arbor Day.
In keeping with its Tree City USA title, the city of Mountain Brook and the Tree Commission will be giving away American beech tree saplings to local residents.
“After 23 years as a Tree City USA, Mountain Brook has cultivated many residents who now annually eagerly anticipate receiving and planting the native trees the city has to offer,” said Sim Johnson, chairman of the Tree Commission.
Four hundred saplings were grown from seeds collected from mature trees in Jemison Park and raised by local nurserywoman Rebecca Cohn with the help of Henry Hughes of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, Friends of Jemison Park and the city.
The week before the city’s public Arbor Day on March 18, 300 of the trees will be given to each first-grade student and teacher in Mountain Brook’s elementary schools during an educational assembly, Johnson said. Because the trees are given to all first-grade students, he added they will later be evenly planted throughout the city limits.
The remaining 100 trees will be available to the general public during Mountain Brook’s Arbor Day on March 18 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Mountain Brook Village Western Market, the Piggly Wiggly in Crestline, Whole Foods and the Piggly Wiggly in River Run. Southern red oaks, sweetbay magnolias, white oaks and red maples also will be available at the grocery stores.
“We hope the city’s efforts reinforce for the public the many financial, health and aesthetic benefits of maintaining and protecting our native tree canopy,” Johnson said. “It is, after all, the duty of its current citizens to plant the next generation of native trees for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.”
