Arbor Day brought Crystal Barnes’ environmental science class outside the walls of Pine Bluff High School on Friday.
Her students educated adults — many of them Pine Bluff city officials — about different types of trees and their functions in absorbing water and helping purify the air as the city commemorated the worldwide celebration of trees at the Civic Center. Some students even helped local foresters plant a medium-sized Frontier elm tree at the Memorial Gardens Park, just a short walk away from the complex.
“Our unit now is about sustainability,” said Barnes, who also teaches biology. “It’s very imperative and important that we take care of trees, plant trees and get rid of old trees and dead trees and replant them so we can go out and make our environment overall more sustainable.”
The 50-foot-tall, 15- to 20-foot-wide tree can absorb to a full sun, said Brian Cockrell of the Arkansas Department of Agriculture Forestry Division.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Kevin Harris, Jefferson County extension agent for urban stormwater, led his third Arbor Day observance of the month after speaking with Barnes’ class and mentoring the students as they prepared for the visual presentations they made inside the Det. Kevin D. Collins Center. Southeast Arkansas College and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff previously hosted such events and planted trees near McGeorge Hall and the W.E. O’Bryant Bell Tower, respectively.
“He came into our classroom teaching us about Arbor Day and the water quality and so many things,” Barnes said. “After he left, one of my students said, ‘Before he came I was upset because I didn’t want to talk about no trees.’ But afterwards, he said, ‘Oh, we should take better care of the trees.'”
Harris said trees help absorb the flooding Pine Bluff endured earlier this month.
“In the next 30 to 45 days, it’s going to get hotter, so we’re going to have to keep an eye on that,” Harris said, stressing the importance of maintaining trees. “We have enough moisture right now.”
With the development of the Courtyard by Marriott hotel across from the Collins Center, trees can also make for walking and birding recreation visitors can enjoy, he said.
“Imagine what this city would look like without trees,” Cockrell said. “It’d be miserable.”
Mayor Vivian Flowers issued a proclamation recognizing Thursday as Arbor Day in Pine Bluff, although Friday was World Arbor Day. She even got in on the act of raking dirt around the new tree under a warm April sun.
City grant writer Tiffany Copeland announced Pine Bluff would receive a $500,000 grant over three years from the Urban and Community Forestry Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant, Copeland said, will allow city workers to cut trees and landscape across Pine Bluff.
“We’re also partnering with our schools to teach students to become arborists,” she added. “By us teaching our students, that in return will allow us to cut trees or do landscaping, which in return will help the city of Pine Bluff.”
Over the next three years, Copeland said, city officials will choose an area in each ward for landscaping, depending on where Flowers would like to cut trees.
The grant is guaranteed, she confirmed.
“We have the email telling us to go ahead and move forward, so we’re excited to see this happen for our city,” she said.
