Roanoke celebrates Tree City USA at Highland Park Elementary

Roanoke celebrates Tree City USA at Highland Park Elementary (Image 1) (Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - Some Roanoke Elementary School students celebrated Arbor Day a little early. Highland Park Elementary School lost all its trees around the property when they died last year.

They recently planted new ones around the school. Some of the children helped move dirt Friday morning for more trees.

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"Anytime you can do something that has hands on or a field experience of some sort it certainly ties it into 'okay this is why it's important'. Maybe they'll think about trees they interact with regularly in a different way," said Mark Crummey, the school's principal. "We teach about trees in the SOL's in kindergarten through fifth and the lifecycles and those kinds of things and what trees provide us but to really stop and think about how we tie that into every day activities here."

Roanoke has been named a Tree City USA for the last twenty years. The award is given by National Arbor Day Foundation and means the community is taking good care of its trees.

"It should give the message that we do care about our environment number one and trees pacifically play an important role in the community whether it be trees in our parks, along our Greenway is or are residential street trees that kind of become part of people's everyday lives," said Dan Henry, Urban Forestry Coordinator.

Arbor day is April 24.