Trees Please: Several groups hold Arbor Week plantings in Eureka, beyond

There will be even more trees growing in Humboldt County in the coming days as several local groups plant purple magnolia, Catalina ironwood and other varieties in observance of California Arbor Week, which runs through Tuesday.

National Arbor Day is on April 28.

“Some states have adopted the same date as National Arbor Day. However, others have selected a different date, for various reasons, often due to climate. California selected March 7, which is (the late horticulturist) Luther Burbank’s birthday. It has since been expanded to Arbor Week, March 7 to 14,” said Chuck Goodwin, a member of the Eureka Sequoia Garden Club since 2009 and a life member of California Garden Clubs, Inc. He’s the current Humboldt District, CGCI, and Pacific Region Garden Club Arbor Day chairman.

The Eureka Sequoia Garden Club, founded in 1967, is a member of California Garden Clubs, Inc. and the Humboldt District, California Garden Clubs, Inc.

“Some of the objectives of the ESGC are to create and promote interest in horticulture and gardening and to engage in civic beautification. Planting trees in our communities is one of the ways we achieve these objectives,” Goodwin said.

The Eureka Sequoia Garden Club is celebrating California Arbor Week this year by planting trees at three different locations.

A purple magnolia tree — courtesy of Miller Farms Nursery in McKinleyville — will be placed at Hospice of Humboldt in Eureka on March 23.

Pictured are members of the Eureka Sequoia Garden Club planting a tree at Hospice of Humboldt during Arbor Week 2022. (Submitted)

“We appreciate the support we receive from the Eureka Sequoia Garden Club. It’s groups like this that make Humboldt County unique and special,” said Hospice of Humboldt Director of Development Tia Baratelle. “We are honored they choose to share their beautiful trees with us on our campus.”

She added, “We often refer to our campus that includes the Ida Emmerson Hospice House as a gem in our community. It is truly one of kind and we are lucky to have something like this in a rural county, like Humboldt. It is only because of local donors and supporters this gem shines bright behind the redwood curtain. Staff, patients and their families often say that our campus provides a sense of peace and tranquility. As one patient at the hospice house explained it, ‘This is a place where you inhale courage and exhale fear.’ These trees provide the oxygen and strength that allow us to provide compassionate care throughout our community 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”

On March 22, club members will plant a second apple tree — an “Apple Babe” variety — at Peninsula Union Elementary School in Samoa.

“This was donated by our garden friends at Pierson’s Nursery,” Goodwin said. “The apple tree will join one planted last year — during Arbor Day — to ensure cross-pollination of the trees and to provide students with apples in the future.”

Soon, as weather permits, club members will also be planting a Princess Bush at Timber Ridge, Eureka, Goodwin said.

On the first National Arbor Day — celebrated in Nebraska in April 1872 — an estimated one million trees were planted on the treeless prairie “thanks to the passion and gusto of a tree-lover named J. Sterling Morton,” Goodwin said.

The Eureka Sequoia Garden Club has held an annual Arbor Day event since 1984 by planting trees at various locations, including Sequoia Park Zoo and the park’s duck pond and gardens, the Humboldt Senior Resource Center, the Adorni Center and other venues, as well as at many churches and schools.

“Our members have lots of community interests in addition to garden clubbing and (they) make suggestions about where a new tree planting might be appropriate to the landscaping,” Goodwin said. “We work closely with each location to fit into their plans and ensure the new trees will have a happy home.

“Our local garden centers have been very generous by donating trees for free or at a reduced price,” he said. “In addition to their natural ability to improve air quality, trees are a wonderful way to soften the landscape and improve the overall atmosphere of the area. ESGC selects trees that will grow successfully in our climate.”

For more information about the Eureka Sequoia Garden Club, go to https://www.californiagardenclubs.com/eurekasequoia/ or call 707-845-4376.

Keep Eureka Beautiful

Also celebrating Arbor Week is the local group called Keep Eureka Beautiful, an all-volunteer effort founded in 1996 to help build civic pride in Eureka and to promote beautification as a community building and economic development tool. One of the main ways that Keep Eureka Beautiful does that is through its “street tree” program, which gives city residents the opportunity to get a tree planted in front of their home at no charge.

“Keep Eureka Beautiful volunteers have planted over 1,200 street trees in the past 16 years. Trees are free and KEB volunteers will do the planting,” said Keep Eureka Beautiful board member Michele McKeegan.

On March 9, Keep Eureka Beautiful volunteers and Eureka High School students held another planting, placing a street tree along the waterfront at First and H streets in Eureka.

“The tree is … a Catalina ironwood, which the other trees on First Street between the Adorni and F Street are,” McKeegan said. “There have been troubles with vandalism down there and so we’ll be replacing a vandalized tree. That’s thought to be the best response to vandalism, to replant ASAP, although sometimes it’s discouraging. But if you look at some of the other Catalina ironwoods in that strip, some are doing well and will be good, strong trees someday.”

Street trees, she said, offer many benefits to the city.

“They slow traffic, protecting pedestrians in that busy part of town, and they soften the landscape,” McKeegan said. “They show that we are a city that cares — about our people, about the birds and other creatures that live in trees, and about the air and water which they filter and clean.”

For more information about Keep Eureka Beautiful’s street tree program, go to https://keepeurekabeautiful.com/street-trees/.

This story originally appeared on Times-Standard.com.