COLUMBIA FALLS — At Marentette Park in Columbia Falls, 90 fifth-grade students from Ruder Elementary joined city leaders to plant four new birch trees for Arbor Day — part of an 18-year tradition tied to the city's Tree City USA designation.
The designation provides Columbia Falls with state funding to maintain and grow its tree population.
To keep it, the city must plant a number of trees proportional to its population each year.
"Every year, you have to have twice as many. They take a percentage, double your population, and they say you have to plant so many trees for each number in the population. You have to do that, then we get funds from the state to plant those trees," Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart said.
The annual event gives students hands-on experience with planting and tree care, and each student took home a sapling.
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Paul Donnellon of the Columbia Falls Tree Board said the day was structured to maximize learning.
"There's going to be rotating stations where students can learn about planting trees and the care for young trees to be able to be grown into larger trees," Donnellon said.
City leaders hope events like this will inspire the next generation to value and care for trees in their community.
Barnhart said lessons learned at a young age tend to stick.
"They're learning about planting trees and why we do it. You plant a seed when they're young, and they'll remember that."
Barnhart also said he hopes the newly planted trees will become a lasting symbol of growth — both for the students and for Columbia Falls.
"They're going to come back in five or ten years, and they're going to say, 'I helped plant that tree and look at it now, it's really growing!'"
