Merced celebrates Arbor Day, its 35th as Tree City USA

Merced students and city employees on Friday used five sunset maples to celebrate Arbor Day in Merced, which marked its 35th year as a Tree City USA.

A small group of fourth- through sixth-graders walked from Peterson Elementary School to Bob Carpenter Park to plant the trees in the nearly 6-acre field at Silverado and Parsons avenues. The city plants saplings to mark Arbor Day every year.

Merced has about 88,000 trees, which works out to about one per resident, according city workers. And those are just the public trees in parks and near sidewalks.

The trees planted in Carpenter Park replaced redwoods that died there after the city cut back on watering because of the drought, according to Ken Elwin, the city’s public works director.

“(Maples) are more tolerant than what we had before,” he said.

Adding trees to city grounds increases property values, improves the general aesthetics and adds to the quality of life, Elwin said, not to mention that trees put out oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide.

Tammy Fischer, learning director at Peterson, said students were told about Arbor Day before they put the saplings in the ground.

“This year, we combined our Earth Day with Arbor Day,” she said.

Gracey and Franklin elementary schools, as well as both Rivera campuses, also planted maple and ash trees to mark the day at their respective schools, according to a news release.

Sunset maples do well in cities, according to Dean Meyer, who maintains trees for the city.

“Nice looking, fast growing,” he said about maples. “They do good in our area.”

The trees could grow up to 40 feet high in the next two decades, he said.

According to the foundation, Tree City USA status is given to communities that meet four standards of urban forestry management: having a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrating Arbor Day.

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 4:21 PM with the headline "Merced celebrates Arbor Day, its 35th as Tree City USA."