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Public Comments - Media

Growing Together
Polk County Itemizer-Observer
April 30, 2002

Volunteers plant trees, nourish community

Tom Henderson
April 30, 2002

MONMOUTH -- While soccer players warmed up at Monmouth Elementary School April 27, volunteers planted trees.
Kids playing soccer...volunteers planting trees.

Standing under a flawless April sky, Monmouth Mayor Paul Evans couldn't help but get swept up in the Norman Rockwell quality of it all.

"This is what it's all about," Evans said. "This is just a great day to be in Monmouth."

Evans knows he can get a bit mushy about these sorts of things. After all, this business of planting trees every year is his baby. He rallied volunteers three years ago to plant trees along Highway 99W.

The result was the Monmouth Legacy Forest, a group of volunteers who make it their mission to make Monmouth a greener place to live.

Their activities caught the attention of the National Arbor Day Foundation last year. Monmouth was named a Tree City USA. This year, the honor was extended.

Kristin Ramsted, an urban forester with the Oregon Department of Forestry's Salem office, presented the awards.

Almost 60 people showed up at Monmouth Elementary April 27 ready to work.

The first order of business was removing six trees from the corner of Main Street and Highway 99W. The trees were a bit of a tactical misjudgment when they were first planted.

They threatened to grow into power lines. They found a much safer home at the elementary school.

"We're concentrating on the right trees at the right places," said Legacy Forest volunteer Pat Mosher.
Volunteers had to work fast to get out of the way of the soccer players.

Nonetheless, they took time for children's activities, such as learning about trees and birdhouses.

"The kids seemed much more interested in the birdhouses than in planting trees," Mosher said.

Learning about trees will become part of the regular curriculum at Monmouth Elementary, Mosher said, a result of getting the six new trees.

About 20 of the volunteers were students from Western Oregon University.

Mandy Workman, a student who works at the residence halls at Western, said it's good to get out into the community.
"Pretty much our little world is on campus," she said.

Mosher found the students' involvement invigorating.

"The students are giving back to the community. Even though they're only here for four years, they want to make an impact on the city."

Monmouth has a lot of annual celebrations from Western Days to the Christmas tree lighting to the new Sizzlin' Sidewalk Sales.

Mosher said those are all great events. However, the annual tree planting has special significance.

"What's really neat is the result it has in the community."