Sulphur Springs is one of 100 communities across Texas to receive a special delivery of 100 trees in honor of Texas A&M Forest Service’s centennial year, capping off a full year of celebrating the agency’s commitment to conserve and protect Texas’ trees and forests. Each community may decide how to use their trees. Many communities tied the trees to last week’s Arbor Day celebrations. Sulphur Springs gave their trees to the local 4H Paws Club. The club will container grow the trees for another year before planting them in the city’s parks and neighborhoods, where many trees were lost during Memorial Day storms. The statewide Arbor Day celebration was held Nov. 6, in College Station at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
Aiming to help communities expand their urban tree canopy, 10,000 seedlings were grown at the TFS-operated West Texas Nursery specifically for 100 Trees for 100 Communities. Sign up was first open to Texas’ Tree City USA communities, then expanded to other cities and towns.
Following some tough years of weather, especially this year’s flooding that occurred in much of the state, many communities are in great need of trees.
“This has been a way to assist communities in their recovery efforts, and it provides an opportunity to connect with some of our smaller communities. We don’t often have trees to give away and it’s very nice to be able to offer trees across the state,” Gretchen Riley, partnership coordinator at Texas A&M Forest Service said.
