One Pine Day: Parkersburg Tree Commission gives seedlings to fourth-graders
Emerson Elementary Assistant Principal Adam Shaffer distributes white pine seedlings to excited fourth-graders Wednesday in the gym. The seedlings were provided by the Parkersburg Tree Commission. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Emerson Elementary music teacher Becky Blauser distributes white pine seedlings to excited fourth-graders Wednesday in the gym. The seedlings were provided by the Parkersburg Tree Commission. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
West Virginia Division of Forestry Assistant Regional Forester Craig Minton, a member of the Parkersburg Tree Commission, speaks to Emerson Elementary fourth-graders Wednesday in the school’s gym about white pine seedlings they will receive in recognition of Arbor Day. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Emerson Elementary fourth-graders surround West Virginia Division of Forestry Assistant Regional Forester Craig Minton, a member of the Parkersburg Tree Commission, as he tells them about a white pine growing in a neighboring yard behind the school Wednesday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Emerson Elementary Assistant Principal Adam Shaffer distributes white pine seedlings to excited fourth-graders Wednesday in the gym. The seedlings were provided by the Parkersburg Tree Commission. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Emerson Elementary music teacher Becky Blauser distributes white pine seedlings to excited fourth-graders Wednesday in the gym. The seedlings were provided by the Parkersburg Tree Commission. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
West Virginia Division of Forestry Assistant Regional Forester Craig Minton, a member of the Parkersburg Tree Commission, speaks to Emerson Elementary fourth-graders Wednesday in the school’s gym about white pine seedlings they will receive in recognition of Arbor Day. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
Emerson Elementary fourth-graders surround West Virginia Division of Forestry Assistant Regional Forester Craig Minton, a member of the Parkersburg Tree Commission, as he tells them about a white pine growing in a neighboring yard behind the school Wednesday. (Photo by Evan Bevins)
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PARKERSBURG - Fourth-graders at Parkersburg schools received gifts Wednesday from the city Tree Commission - their own white pines to plant.
It's a way for the commission to celebrate Arbor Day, which promotes and celebrates the planting of trees and is observed in West Virginia on the second Friday of April. It's also a chance to give students "an appreciation for trees and the benefits they provide for our community," said Craig Minton, assistant regional forester with the state Division of Forestry and a member of the Parkersburg Tree Commission.
Minton spoke with students Wednesday morning at Emerson Elementary, one of three schools he visited, with members delivering saplings to other schools within the city limits. He asked the kids what they knew about trees and explained why they're important.
"They help keep the air clean," he said. "They take out some of the pollutants and dust and dirt so we don't have to breathe them."
Students chimed in that trees provide homes for animals and are used to make paper and wood, while also taking in the carbon dioxide people exhale and releasing oxygen.
Minton told students a tree can't be planted just anywhere.
"Some trees do better in the sun; some trees do better in the shade," he said. For the white pines, "you need to find a place where it's got plenty of room to grow, because it can be 80, 90 feet tall and 20- to-30-feet wide.
"It's not going to stay this little for long," he said, holding up a seedling.
If some students didn't have a place to immediately plant the seedlings, Minton said they could raise them in a pot for a while. One student asked if she could plant hers at the City Park. Minton said that while trees are needed there, there are regulations as to where they can be planted.
Fourth-grader Anna Stout was excited to receive her seedling.
"It gives us more air, and they're pretty," she said.
Stout said she was trying to figure out where she could plant hers since her family has many trees in their backyard.
"My whole family likes to climb on it," she said. "We call it 'the monkey tree.'"
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.