By JOHN R. STANARD
Oak Grove Elementary School has a new "oak grove."
Representatives of the Poplar Bluff City Tree Advisory Board recently planted seven willow oak trees that eventually will provide shade for the playground at Oak Grove Elementary School.
School Principal Jenifer Richardson involved the entire student body in the project, assembling the more than 300 students in grades 1 through 3 on the playground to witness the planting and learn about the value of the trees. Student members of the school's Recycling and Beautification Committee assisted in piling mulch around the new trees to suppress weeds and retain moisture.
Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) Forest Resource Assistants Matt Adams and William Cato dug the holes for the trees and supervised the planting. Their supervisor, Mark Pelton, area resource forester for MDC and a member of the city Tree Board, assisted in the planning for the Oak Grove project. Wolf Wyatt, also a Tree Board member and a former nurseryman, provided a truck load of mulch for the project and assisted with the planting.
The willow oaks were provided to the city by Forest ReLeaf of Missouri, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1993 to provide trees for planting on public and non-profit grounds in Missouri communities. Operating out of the CommuniTree Gardens Nursery in St. Louis County with a small professional staff and scores of volunteers, Forest ReLeaf has provided some 200,000 trees over its 24 years of existence.
The Missouri Forestkeepers Network, a statewide volunteer effort aimed at conserving and sustaining Missouri's trees and forests, is a free membership program administered by Forest ReLeaf in partnership with MDC.
The seven willow oaks planted at Oak Grove School were four-foot specimens potted in three-gallon containers. Forest ReLeaf estimates it costs about $30 to raise each three-gallon tree from a seedling. The trees were planted along the west side of the Oak Grove playground at 50-foot intervals, which should provide a solid bank of shade in 25 to 30 years. Willow oaks, which occur naturally along the Ozark escarpment and into the lowlands of Southeast Missouri, grow to a height of 50 to 70 feet and spread about 50 feet. They exhibit a medium rate of The city Tree Board, with the assistance of the MDC forestry staff, planted two large willow oaks last spring for the playground at Lake Road Elementary School. Those two oaks joined a lone, mature pin oak along the east side of the playground at Lake Road.
The tree board, formed three years ago, plans an ongoing program of tree education and promotion for Poplar Bluff and will continue to provide trees for local public spaces.