Belden goes green with tree planting event

BELDEN — Children and adults alike got their hands dirty as the Village of Belden hosted a tree planting event last month.

The Nebraska Forest Service provided 10 trees and two representatives for the event Oct. 14.

The event included an educational session in which Graham Herbst and Anna Keenan from the forest service talked to the children from four home-school families for about 45 minutes, educating them about tree varieties, how to plant and how to prune trees, said Robert Patefield, Parks and Recreation manager for the Village of Belden.

“They had all sorts of questions and they interacted really well,” he said of the students.

After the education, the children and their families helped plant the trees - some on Main Street and some at the cemetery. The trees included American linden, oak, maple, sycamore and honey locust varieties, Patefield said.

“We’ve got big trees, old trees on Main Street where there’s branches falling here and there and need to be replaced. We wanted to get some new ones started before taking the old ones out,” he said.

Along with planting new trees, several older trees were removed from the pool area to provide more aeration and light.

Belden has been acquiring trees for a number of years and have all kinds of varieties in town including blackberry and even a pecan tree not far from Patefield’s home.

“They said it may be 15 years before it starts putting any fruit on but it might not be all bad. I’m hoping to get a pie out of it anyway,” Patefield said with a smile.

Eventually, the village’s goal is to apply to the Tree City USA program.

A community can achieve this status by

A community can achieve this status by maintaining a tree board or department; having a community tree ordinance; spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry; and celebrating Arbor Day.

More than 3,600 cities have been recognized as a Tree City throughout the United States including Laurel, Hartington and Wausa.