Second-graders celebrate Arbor Day in Havre

Editor's note: This version corrects the name of Lincoln-McKinley second-grader Gage Pulse.

For a little while Monday morning Simon Pepin Memorial Park was the classroom for second-graders from several area schools who gathered to plant and learn about trees.

Second-graders from Lincoln-McKinley Primary School and St. Jude Thaddeus School in Havre and Box Elder and Rocky Boy schools gathered at the park for the city's annual Arbor Day celebration.

The celebration is organized each year by TURF - Task Force for Urban Reforestation - and funded with a grant from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

TURF member Dave Wilson said that, in all, 200 to 225 second-graders showed up for the celebration.

Arbor Day is widely observed on the last Friday of each April and is meant to encourage the planting and care of trees.

Students arrived at the park at 9 a.m. where they stood in line with milk jugs in hand, as TURF members helped each student select one of four varieties of tree seedlings: honey locust, crab apple, Norway spruce and red maple.

Children also received a small bottle of water to be used to water their tree and a pass good for one visit to the Havre City Pool.

The seedlings were paid for through an Arbor Day grant from the National Arbor Day Foundation, Wilson said.

St. Jude student Sofie Acuna, 8, said she chose a crab apple tree because she wanted to learn something about it.

Lincoln-McKinley student Gage Pulse, 8, said he selected a Norway spruce because he thought it would go well with the pine trees near his house.

Trees are important, he said, because "they make the earth grow."

The new trees were given out at Pepin Park, which had been closed since October when a powerful snowstorm brought down many tree branches and left others dangling.

Mayor Tim Solomon told the children that many of the trees still standing but battered by the storm will likely have to be cut down.

He added that he hopes seedlings like the ones the children had can be planted in the park to replace the trees that must be taken out.

"This park wouldn't be much of a park without all these nice trees around here," Solomon said.

Students from each school also had the chance to take part in several educational activities meant to teach them about trees and tree safety.

Volunteers from the Bullhook Blossoms Garden Club, Montana State University-Northern athletics and the Montana State University Hill County Extension Office were at the work stations.

Hill County Extension agents Shylea Wingard and Jasmine Carbajal taught the children about the things needed to successfully grow a tree.

"They need water, sunlight and nutrients," Wingard said.

Each of the three elements were represented by a different square of colored paper. Every student would come along and pick up two pieces of paper. After talking to them about what is needed to successfully grow a tree and what each color represented, they broke into groups. Blues and turquoises were water, yellow and oranges sunlight and the rest of colors represented the other nutrients that are needed.

Wingard said the children were to all try to get together with friends, but if they don't have all the different kinds of paper they have to find someone who does in order to successfully grow a tree.

Josh Steycheff, a forester with DNRC, also presented Solomon with a Tree City USA banner for Havre.

Tree City USA is a designation from the National Arbor Day Foundation and is meant to recognize cities for their excellence in urban forestry.

Steycheff said that to qualify for the designation, a city must have a tree ordinance, spend $2 per capita on tree expenses, have a tree board and issue an official proclamation celebrating Arbor Day.

He said Havre has been a Trees USA City for 28 years, making it one of the longest Tree City USA communities in Montana.

"Twenty-eight years, that puts you at 1990, which is quite impressive," he said.