Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Tom Von Seggern, chairman of the City of Sidney Tree Board presented City of Sidney Mayor Wendall Gaston with a Tree City USA Flag at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. This is the 27th year that the City of Sidney has earned the Tree City USA designation, and Gaston proclaimed April 26 as Arbor Day for the city at the meeting.
On Saturday, April 20 City of Sidney Tree Board members are holding their annual Tree Give-Away in honor of the City’s National Arbor Day Celebration.
Registration for the tree give-away will take place the morning of the event between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. at the Lodgepole Valley Youth Camp on Fort Sidney Road, according to tree board chairman, Tom Von Seggern.
Von Seggern has been on the board for a total of 11 years and says that the tree give-away continues to be a great community event.
“Registration ends at eight and then I’ll do a short presentation to present the flag to the mayor and read about Arbor Day,” said Von Seggern. “Then we’ll do a planting demonstration after that, and when that demonstration is done then the boy scouts will help us distribute the trees to the people who registered.”
To be eligible for a tree, the chairman said that participants must register and attend the training program covering proper planting methods.
This is the 27th year that the City of Sidney has earned the Tree City USA designation, and to celebrate eight different varieties of trees will be available to take home at the give-away.
There will be approximately 90 trees available and the different types of trees are all suited to Sidney’s climate, said Von Seggern.
The different types are trees are Oak, Pear, hybrid Elm, Maple, Linden, Birdcherry, Crabapple and Birch.
The trees came from a nursery in Wisconsin, and were purchased from an amount set aside in the City of Sidney City Parks budget for tree replacement.
The first 90 people to register for the event will receive a four-foot to seven-foot bare-root tree, and if 90 people do not sign up then those trees will end up in the parks or in the cemetery, he said.
Von Seggern also said that the tree give-away is limited to Sidney residents.
Once the tree planting demonstration is over and the trees are handed out, residents are free to take their trees homes and plant them whenever they like.
“The trees can go on their personal property,” said Von Seggern. “They can take them home and they can be in the front of the house or the back – it is their digression.
“However we encourage them to be aware of utilities so they don’t plant a tall tree under a power line or dig their phone line up when they are doing the opening.
“The tree program offers an opportunity to both instruct the public on proper planting methods and diversify the tree species in the city,” explained Von Seggern. “Individuals who plant and care for trees help replenish our community forests and to replace our maturing tree population.
“We did a tree inventory and we have a fairly young tree population right now,” he said. “But as we lose these older, large, maturing trees, this is our way to replenish them for the future so that future generations can enjoy the benefits of them, such as the shade and windbreak.”
Von Seggern said that he is happy the city received the designation of Tree City USA again this year and that the program is sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation, the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters.
“To earn the Tree City USA designation a community must meet four standards: have a tree board, a city tree ordinance, a comprehensive community forestry program, and an Arbor Day observance (all of which Sidney has),” he said.
Mayor Wendall Gaston proclaimed April 26 as Arbor Day for the City of Sidney at the last city council meeting Tuesday night, and Von Seggern said that Arbor Day is always the last Friday in April.
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