Shade Tree Committee continues tree planting plans for Arbor Day
Shelby’s Shade Tree Committee spent the majority of their last meeting hammering out plans for planting trees to celebrate Arbor Day and their 40th Anniversary. They worked through a list of trees and prices available at Arnold’s Landscaping and Garden Center to see which would be the best fit for the areas they plan to plant them in. So far, the plan remains the same to plant one tree in each ward of Shelby in a park in that ward: Raybold, Veteran’s, Mcbride, and possibly the Boulevard initially. Throughout the year, they plan to plant more.
Jessica Gribben announced that Shelby has now been a “Bee City” for one full year, in addition to being a “Tree City” for 40 years. Signs went up that week at the entrances to town. As a part of the requirements for this, the City had to submit a list of native trees and plants that were good for pollinators. Gribben asked in the meeting if when discussing types of trees to plant, the Shade Tree Committee could consider a few native trees that flower so pollinators can use them.
A special guest joined the Shade Tree Committee’s meeting, Kathy, a Girl Scout leader in Shelby. The Girl Scouts in Shelby want to help plant trees in town to earn badges. Kathy said this program started back in April of 2021 with the National Girl Scouts organization to have a “Tree Promise” to plant 5,000,000 trees nationwide in five years. On April 23, the Girl Scouts in Shelby plan to plant some trees around the Scout House, Kathy said she hopes they have enough funds to let each troop get their own tree to plant.
Kathy mentioned wanting to plant some more decorative, flowering trees around the Scout House. She also said that the Girl Scouts would be happy to help plant the additional trees with the Shade Tree Committee. The Girl Scouts also have to help water the trees they plant which made the Shade Tree Committee very happy as caring for newly planted trees can be a lot of work.
Kathy read the Girl Scout Tree Promise to the Committee: “I promise to be a friend to every tree, just like they’re a friend to me. I will plant and protect them through and through with the help of my loyal Girl Scout crew. Besides being beautiful, there’s more to see; for climate change, they hold a key. They fill our lungs with cleaner air; it’s our responsibility to care. That’s why I’ll advocate for every tree. Because I need them, and they need me!”
After dates and times of tree planting were figured out, the Committee spent the remainder of the meeting discussing prices, sizes, and types of trees they preferred to plant to celebrate Arbor Day and their 40th Anniversary. The Shelby Shade Tree Committee works hard to keep the town beautiful and the treescape diverse. Remember to include them in your celebrations this coming Arbor Day.
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Federal regulators designated two U.S. freshwater mussels as threatened on Wednesday, a further sign of trouble for native mollusks that help cleanse waters by filtering out pollutants as they feed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was granting protection to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels, which have declined in many Eastern and Midwestern streams.
The primary cause is habitat damage from urban sprawl, farming, oil and gas development, pipelines and mining. Other factors include competition from nonnative mussels and rising stream temperatures linked to climate change.
“Both of these mussels have suffered proverbial deaths from a thousand cuts,” said Gary Peeples, deputy supervisor of the agency’s field office in Asheville, North Carolina. “A lot of little things have added up.”
Flourishing mussel populations signal healthy streams, he said. North America is a historical showcase of mussel diversity, hosting about 300 of the world’s roughly 900 types. But about two-thirds of the continent’s freshwater mussels are imperiled.
The newly designated threatened species have much wider ranges than many struggling mussels, Peeples said. Both favor stream bottoms with mixtures