Albion celebrates new trees at Mount Albion on Arbor Day
Photo by Tom Rivers
ALBION – Albion seventh-graders Tommy Fox, left, and Bryce Wilson help plant a tree – a maple red autumn blaze – at Mount Albion Cemetery on Friday as part of an Arbor Day celebration, the first in many years at Albion. Other students in back include, from left: Ashleigh Mowatt, Jillian Ray, Dallas Ecker and Lauren Brooks.
The Village of Albion is planting seven new trees in the cemetery this week as part of Arbor Day.
The village is taking steps to become a Tree City USA Community. Albion received a $950 grant from the NYS Urban Forestry Council. The matching funds will help the village get started on becoming an official Tree City. The village also has established a Tree Advisory Board to help plan tree plantings in the future.
The students are pictured with the teacher, Tim Archer, who leads the service learning class for seventh graders.
Ashleigh Mowatt discusses the history of Mount Albion Cemetery, which opened in 1843. The cemetery is home to numerous varieties of trees. The site has been maintained with a park-like setting over the years and was named to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The students shared reflections on the value of trees and the history of Arbor Day.
Albion Mayor Eileen Banker said the village is making a commitment to plant more trees in the community in the coming years, with a goal of becoming a Tree City USA.
County Historian Matt Ballard praised Albion and the students for planting trees on Arbor Day.
“Each tree is unique, crafted by Mother Nature as an individual like no other, just as each of us standing here today,” Ballard said. “A tree’s natural beauty is derived from the shape of its leaves, the colors they show, the texture of their bark, the arrangement of their branches, the way in which their roots creep across the earth, the knots on their trunk, and the rings that show their age.”
Ballard quoted from Theodore Roosevelt, the former U.S. president who was a determined conservationist: “To exist as a nation, to prosper as a State, and to live as a people, we must have trees.”
