Last counties approved for WWI trees

A joint project by the Arkansas World War I Centennial Commemoration Committee and the Arkansas Forestry Commission has reached its goal to place World War I Memorial Trees in each of the state’s 75 counties this year in observance of the war’s 100th anniversary.

The Centennial Commission announced Wednesday that it has approved applications for locations in five counties for the trees, the last of the 75 counties to plant trees or be approved for a memorial tree.

The memorial tree program began in September in observance of the United States’ involvement in the war, from April 6, 1917, to Nov. 11, 1918. The centennial observance will conclude at the end of this year.

Through the partnership program, the Arkansas Forestry Commission donates 2-year-old willow oaks to an organization in each county that will plant a memorial tree in a public location by year’s end, and the commission lends its expertise in their care.

The centennial committee managed the program and provided a small amount of soil from the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France to be used in the planting of each tree. The cemetery is on the site of the 47-day Meuse-Argonne Offensive, or the Battle of the Argonne Forest, the largest engagement of the war.

The final five applicants and locations approved are: Little River County, Little River County Courthouse, Ashdown; Ouachita County, Ouachita County Courthouse, Camden; Poinsett County, Poinsett

County Courthouse, Harrisburg; Dallas County Library in Dallas County, behind the Dallas County Sports Museum, Fordyce; and, Crossett Public Library in Ashley County, at the library.

Five counties that were previously approved are to hold planting dedications this month, with the final one to be March 31 in Perry County.

In the years after the end of World War I in 1918, memorial trees were planted all over the world to remember the millions who perished during the war.

More than 71,000 Arkansans served in the war, with 2,183 deaths. A small grove of holly trees planted after the war remains on the Henderson State University campus in Arkadelphia.

The locations of the memorial trees will be included on the Centennial Committee’s website at wwiarkansas.com/ sites-memorials.html.