In celebration of National Arbor Day, the City of Ventura Parks Division invited the public to a tree planting event Wednesday, April 26 at the Westpark Community Center.
Students from PEAK (Program Enrichment for After-school Kids) assisted the City’s Urban Forestry staff in planting three different species of trees. Each year, more than 500 elementary and middle school children participate in PEAK activities where they receive safe and supervised after-school homework assistance, nutritional snacks, art, music, computer science, fitness and sports programs. PEAK is a partnership between the City of Ventura, the Ventura Unified School District and the Police Activities League (PAL).
The City of Ventura’s Urban Forestry Division is responsible for approximately 30,000 City trees, and regulates all planting, pruning and removal of trees in the public right-of-way. City trees are an important part of our community – they produce oxygen, help reduce air pollution, cool our streets by lowering temperatures in the shade, provide sound dampening and wind buffers, provide a habitat for animals and improve the aesthetic quality of life.
According to the National Arbor Day Foundation, Arbor Day started in April 1872 when more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska at the urging of J. Sterling Morton who first proposed the tree-planting holiday at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture.
For more information about the City of Ventura’s Urban Forestry Division, visit www.cityofventura.net/urbanforestry or call the Tree Hotline at 667-6519.
