Seneca students plant tree in Oneida

ONEIDA, N.Y.>> Students from Willard Prior Elementary lent the City of Oneida their green thumbs on Friday.

In celebration of Arbor Day 2017, Willard Prior fifth graders joined forces with the Oneida Department of Public Works and the Oneida Parks and Recreation Department to plant a red maple sapling at Allen Park, continuing a decades-long tradition.

“We can plant this tree to help our Earth breathe more oxygen and get more air,” said Willard Prior student Troy Briggs when asked about the importance of trees to the environment.

And while trees are good for the Earth, they help people too by giving them oxygen to breathe, says Julianna Caroli. Classmate Giana Simzer agreed, saying trees were important “because it supports oxygen so you can breathe.”

That importance is not lost on City of Oneida government, as the municipality is one of 111 Tree City USA Communities in New York, and has maintained that title over the course of the last 27 years by exemplifying good tree planting practices.

Parks and Recreation Director Luke Griff quizzed the students before they planted the redmaple, asking students what the official New York state tree (sugar maple) and the official United States tree (oak) are. He also discussed how to investigate whether or not an area was a good location for a new tree by making sure there are no

power lines or other obstacles above the tree and no structures are too close to the side of the tree.

Civil engineering technician Charlie Stewart shared a brief history of Arbor Day - which was founded in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska as a means of reminding pioneers of the homes they left behind, providing windbreaks to keep soil in place, for fuel and building materials - before students began pitching shovel-fulls of dirt to secure the tree.

At the end of the Arbor Day celebration, every student received a tree to take home and plant.

JOHN BREWER - ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH Seneca Street fifth graders help the City of Oneida plant its latest Arbor Day addition.

JOHN BREWER — ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH Each Seneca Street fifth grader who assisted the City of Oneida plant a red maple at Allen Park received a tree to take home and plant.