Thursday, March 28, 2024

Tree City Pateros hosts annual Arbor Day observance

Guest speakers, displays, tree distributions included

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PATEROS – The observance and tradition of Arbor Day, first inaugurated in 1872 with the planting of more than one million trees in Nebraska, was well-celebrated in Pateros, one of 90 Tree Cities in the state, last Friday afternoon, April 28.
Activities got underway with the free distribution of four tree varieties to survivors of the 2014 Carlton Complex and 2015 Okanogan Complex wildfires. Native varieties of Ponderosa Pine, Rocky Mountain Douglas Fir and Chokecherry and non-native Little Leaf Linden were donated by the Washington Community Tree Recovery Campaign supported by the Arbor Day Foundation, FedEx, the Okanogan County Long Term Recovery Group and Okanogan Conservation District and handed out with help from AmeriCorps volunteers.
County commissioners Andy Hover and Jim DeTro – Chris Branch had a prior commitment – spoke briefly about progress on highway repair following the recent rain storm. DeTro also mentioned the weather-delayed opening of the North Cascades Highway, normally opened by the first day of fishing season.
 “It’s still snowing on those guys every day,” DeTro said.
Ben Thompson, with the DNR Urban and Community Forestry Program, spoke not only on the benefits trees provide a community but also the importance of planting “the right tree in the right place” to maximize all the benefits trees offer. Thompson cautioned against locating trees under power lines or next to a house foundation to avoid creating more problems than the trees are intended to solve.
Guest speaker, Okanogan High School junior, Myla Gray of the Valley Venturers 4H Club, delivered a presentation, complete with visual aids, on the importance of bee pollination.
Gray shared some interesting facts about bee life: The typical bee will visit about 5,000 flowers in the course of one day. One bee produces about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its entire life. It requires the nectar from two million flowers to produce one pound of honey.
Pateros volunteer fireman and local apple and cherry orchardist Bruce Henne asked Gray what agriculturalists could do to promote bee health. Gray suggested the use of bee-friendly insect and weed sprays to the continuing reduce the continuing decline in bee numbers.
City administrator, Jord Wilson, encouraged recipients to “get your trees in the ground this evening or tomorrow morning and water them well if you want them to survive.”  
Pateros High School students Austin Yancey and Isaac Wall explained their senior project that involves the installation of native plant varieties at the new Memorial to the Methow Park that will be completed later this spring. Wall and Yancey set in the first of those plants that were donated by Rob Crandall, owner of Methow Natives Nursery in Winthrop.
The Brewster Ag class brought a selection of plants from its annual spring plant sale. Ag advisor Todd Dezellem and students Melissa Corrales and Erick Pamatz set up a display of plant selections including Million Bells, Osetomum, Lobella and other varieties.

pateros, Arbor Day

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