14,000 Trees Handed out to Students
April 30, 2011
14,000 trees handed out to students at Oregon Elementary
Saturday, April 30, 2011 08:45 PM
By JENNA GANT
ThisWeek Community Newspapers - Johnstown
When Linda Brobeck, Oregon Elementary School principal, received a letter stating every one of her students could receive a free tree, she jumped at the chance.
She ordered 350 trees for her first- through third-graders.
"I think it's important for students to be a part of taking care of our environment," Brobeck said.
The Licking County Soil and Water Conservation District teamed up with elementary and middle schools throughout the county, including Oregon Elementary, to provide free Norway spruce tree seedlings.
In all the LCSWCD distributed 14,000 trees throughout the county.
Jim Kiracofe, district program administrator, said LCSWCD distributed the seedling trees throughout the week to promote Earth Day on April 22 and Arbor Day on April 29.
"We're trying to conserve natural resources today for our children tomorrow and this is just one little way to do it," Kiracofe said.
He said LCSWCD handed out 9,000 more seedlings this year than last year.
Sending letters to every elementary school principal helped garner more interest, Kiracofe said.
"Just by being a little more proactive, we touched based with a lot more teachers and we went from 5,000 to 14,000," he said. "I think there's a lot of interest and a lot support by the teachers just from those numbers."
The seedling trees program started more than 50 years ago, Kiracofe said, and residents still come up to him to talk about the tree seedling they received decades ago.
Brobeck said she remembers receiving a tree from a former student more than a decade ago, though she said Oregon Elementary hadn't participated in the program for at least seven years.
"I hope this is a tradition that continues," Brobeck said.
The students receive the trees when they are only six to 10 inches high. Kiracofe said they could grow to a height of 50 feet.
"That's really neat, too, for a little kid to plant a tree that's smaller than them and then a few years (later) that tree is going to be bigger than them," he said.
Kiracofe said it's important for residents to keep repopulating the nation's forests.
Trees occupied 98 percent of Ohio's land 200 years ago, he said, but that number decreased once people built cities and farmland.
"We took a lot of trees away and weeded it down to 12 percent timber trees in the whole state now it's about 35-38 percent forested," Kiracofe said.
That's why he believes the younger generation is perfect for increasing the green population.
"They just need a lot of nurturing and tender loving care and are taken care of properly, then they'll make a nice tree later," Kiracofe said.
Students, by planting the trees, help provide oxygen, improve water quality and beautify landscape, he said.
"It's a wonderful thing and I think it really does promote the green," Brobeck said.
