Plantings celebrate Earth Day
‘TreeVitalize’
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CARA MORNINGSTAR/Sun-Gazette
Chad Eckert, city forester, left and Tom Cillo, general manager of streets and parks, right, plant a tree along Little League Boulevard near the intersection with Pine Street in Williamsport on Thursday.
As the root was placed into a hole dug into the grass along the curb of Little League Boulevard, a young Kentucky coffee tree received a new home.
The species grows a pod with seeds inside that may be used to make coffee, but don't go looking for the seeds because the city ordered a seedless variety, said Chad Eckert, city forester.
"So not to make a mess," he said, laughing, as he joined Tom Cillo, general manager of the city Streets and Parks Department, to plant one of many trees along the boulevard.
The street used to be lined with ash trees until an insect called the emerald ash borer decimated them.
It was fitting the plantings took place right before Earth Day, which is today, and Arbor Day, which will be commemorated in the city next Friday.
The trees were purchased by the city using a grant of about $9,000 from the TreeVitalize program of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, according to John Grado, city engineer and director of community and economic development.
The grant was used to purchase 75 trees from a nursery in New York, Grado said.
Species such as Kentucky coffee, swamp white oak and red oak have been planted around town.
Students from Curtin Intermediate School and Pennsylvania College of Technology are expected to plant the remaining trees along Brandon and Union avenues and Cherry and Hughes streets on Monday, Grado said.