Volunteers to plant trees in Albany Saturday

ALBANY — While Arbor Day won’t arrive until April 29, a special day of tree appreciation will be celebrated Saturday in Albany with the planting of 50 oaks and crepe myrtles behind the Albany Civic Center.

“Not only do trees do so much to beautify the landscape, but they help to hold the soil together, they generate the oxygen we breathe and they provide habitat for wildlife,” said Judy Bowles, executive director of Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful.

Bowles said that more volunteers are needed for the event and asked those ready for a “labor of love,” to meet at 100 Front St. at 9 a.m. in work clothes and gloves, and carrying their own shovels. According to Bowles, tree-planting makes for a perfect family event.

“Children love to be involved,” Bowles said, “And the best part of having them here is that in 10 or 15 years, they could be bringing their own children and showing them the trees they planted Saturday.”

Bowles said that even now she’ll occasionally drive along the 900 block of Third Avenue to see the pine tree she planted when she was still in seventh-grade.

“Everyone in the school was given a tree to plant,” Bowles said. “After all these years, my project has grown into a very large tree. We lose so many trees each year to new homes and businesses being built, it’s incumbent on society to do the replanting.”

According to Bowles, city agencies have been at work all week preparing for the planting, including auguring holes for trees. Special equipment will be used to plant those trees too large to handle any other way.

“The nuttal oaks are 16-18 feet tall,” Bowles said, “with the roots bound up in burlap. They brought them in on a flatbed truck. The behind-the-scenes work the city has been doing is just an awesome job. They’ve been out here all week.”

Bowles said that Albany Mayor Dorothy Hubbard will be on hand to read and sign a proclamation declaring Saturday Arbor Day in Albany.