Plant Trees for Piedmont on Arbor Day

Tree planting on Arbor Day, which falls on the first Friday in April each year, has been a tradition since the late 1800s. This year, the City of Piedmont is celebrating at Crocker Park along King Avenue with the planting of a boxed coast live oak, along with various other plants. 

The event takes place at 12:30 p.m. Friday, which is also, appropriately enough, Earth Day. The ceremony will include a guest appearance by Smokey the Bear to entertain and teach Piedmont schoolchildren in attendance. City council members, Park Commission Chairman Randy Deutsch and members of the Piedmont Garden Club, the Piedmont Beautification Foundation and the Piedmont Recreation School Program will also attend.

Quercus agrifolia, or the coast live oak, is an evergreen tree native to California recognizable by its dark leaves, short trunk and crooked branches. It's the tree that gave Oakland its name. The tree grows well in open spaces like parks and is fairly easy to maintain, although in recent years the coast live oak and other oak species in the West have been attacked by a devastating disease called Sudden Oak Death.

Piedmont Parks and Project Manager Mark Feldkamp said the new live oak replaces another one in Crocker Park that died from old age. 

He said the tree will be placed in a larger planter area where there is no irrigation, near the location of the original live oak. The cost is partially covered by private donations.

For ideas on how to celebrate Arbor Day, download the Celebrate Arbor Day Guidebook from the Arbor Day Foundation.