Community Corner

62nd State Arbor Day to Be Celebrated in Durand Park

Manalapan Township will be honored as a 20 year Tree City USA at the New Jersey Arbor Day celebration on Friday, April 29.

Volunteers, school children, elected officials and an astronaut will gather at Durand Park Memorial Arboretum in Freehold on Friday, April 29 for the state’s 2011 Arbor Day celebration.

Freehold Township was selected as the site of the state’s Arbor Day plans because the municipality is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a Tree City USA town. Manalapan Township is also celebrating an anniversary this year, and will be awarded an official plaque for 20 years as a Tree City USA at the Arbor Day celebration on Friday.

Freehold Township Shade Tree Commission has worked with the New Jersey Community Forestry Council (NJCFC) for many months planning the festivities, bidding for trees, and deciding where each type of tree should be planted based on their species requirements. 

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The event will begin at 8 a.m., when approximately 150 volunteers work on planting 135 trees on the property, a portion of which have been donated from Manalapan Township.

A color guard and a bag piper will open the Arbor Day ceremony at 11 a.m. within Durand Park's arboretum. The Clifton T. Barkalow Middle School band and chorus, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School band, the Freehold Intermediate School band, and the Shore Regional High School band will perform during the celebration.

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In addition, NJ Forest Service Chief Lynn Fleming, Freehold Township Mayor David Salkin, Shade Tree Commission Chairman George Klinger, and Freehold Township School District Business Administrator Brian Boyle will speak during the ceremony. 

"Department of Agriculture Secretary Douglas H. Fisher, foresters, tree experts, and other experts from the DEP will be on hand to talk about the importance of trees to the environment," a press release, disclosed by the DEP on April 27, said.

The highlight of the event will be an appearance by astronaut Gregory T. Linteris. Linteris grew up in Demarest and when he was slated to join a space shuttle mission in April 1997, he worked with the Demarest Shade Tree Commission to bring eastern white pine seeds on the flight on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

Freehold Township and Freehold Borough were in a group of 15 towns that received the seeds, which have been tended at the New Jersey Forest Nursery in Jackson. While typical germination for an eastern white pine seedling is 10 to 14 days, the space shuttle seeds sprouted in half that time, according to New Jersey Shade Tree Federation.

Linteris will assist other officials in planting the eastern white pine at Durand Park at the end of the ceremony.


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