Arvada Celebrates 32 Years Of Tree Planting

ARVADA, CO – The city of Arvada boasts about its designation as "Tree City USA," recognized for 28 years by the Arbor Day Foundation as one of the 3,400 U.S. cities that have contributed to the beautification of the U.S. and its urban canopy.

Part of that tree-hugging culture has been built by a decades-long friendship that started in 1987 between between Dudley Weiland, a 6th grade teacher at Peck Elementary School, and Craig Hillegass, an Arvada parks supervisor. That year, the two got together to plan their first Arbor Day collaboration.

For 32 years, the City of Arvada Parks Division and students at Peck Elementary have been planting trees together for Arbor Day in the spring. More than 1,700 students have planted 470 trees with Arvada park employees in parks across the community, and students go home with their own Arbor Day seedling.

This fall, the parks division was honored with a "Gold Leaf Award for Arbor Day Activities" from the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture, the city said in a press release.

Each year, 5th and 6th graders from Peck work with City Parks employees to plant trees throughout Arvada. Forestry staff visit the school to provide information about the trees, and the students make informational posters which they bring to the schools yearly Arbor Day celebration. Today, there are Peck Elementary teachers who participated in Arbor Day as students years ago.

“It has been my privilege to attend many of these annual events," Mayor Marc Williams said in a nominating letter to the organization. "After 32 years, it is a joy to see former Peck Elementary students attend the Arbor Day event as teachers. Arvada proudly wears the title of Tree City USA.”

Image via Scott Anderson/Patch

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