Celebrate Arbor Day Tomorrow, April 29 with Planting of Fruit Tree Grove in Davis Park

Ceremony will honor Providence's 25th straight year being named as a Tree City USA community.

Join the Providence Parks Department and Trees 2020 tomorrow morning, Friday, April 29 to celebrate Arbor Day with the planting of a grove of fruit trees in Davis Park, and for a ceremony in celebration of Providence's 25th straight year being named as a Tree City USA community.

The ceremony will be held at the César Chávez Memorial in Davis Park, at the corner of Chalkstone Avenue and Raymond Street in Smith Hill. The tree planting and ceremony will begin at 10 AM.

The Parks Department's Forestry Division will plant eight trees that produce edible fruit or nuts - three luscious pear trees, four Montmorency cherry trees, and two English walnut trees.

"Trees provide environmental and health benefits and they make Providence beautiful. I commend the Parks Department Forestry Division and our community volunteers who care for thousands of trees across the city, and thank them for their work to make Providence a Tree City USA community for the 25th year in a row," said Mayor Angel Taveras.

Students from Nathanael Greene Middle School will help plant the trees at tomorrow's event, and will read two Arbor Day poems and a short reading on Cesar Chavez, the American farm and orchard worker, labor leader and civil rights activist.

Trees 2020, a program of Groundwork Providence in partnership with the City, is supplying the trees. Members of the Cesar E. Chavez Committee of Rhode Island and the Davis Park Community Garden have agreed to water and care for the trees after they have been planted.

Douglas Still, Providence's City Forester, will discuss the importance of Arbor Day, Providence's 25th anniversary as a Tree City USA, what makes Providence's urban forest special, and fruit trees as a part of community gardens.

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit will read a proclamation from Governor Lincoln Chafee about this Arbor Day event. Cathy Sparks, director of Rhode Island DEM's Division of Forest Environment, will present the Tree City USA award to the Providence Parks Department.

Robert McMahon, Superintendent of Parks, will act as emcee of the celebration.

This is the 25th straight year that Providence has been named a "Tree City USA" community by the Arbor Day Foundation. The City's Forestry Division manages 25,500 street trees and all trees in Providence's parks and on public property. It handles more than 2,000 service requests from Providence residents each year, including dead tree removal, tree pruning, pick-up of fallen branches, and stump removal.

The Forestry Division plants trees as a partner in the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program with matching funds from the Mary Elizabeth Sharpe Street Tree Endowment. The PNPP plants approximately 450 trees per year throughout Providence with the help of neighborhood residents.