By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Ed Darr hopes to "bring back history" and make Arbor Day April 27 meaningful once more.
"We're going to make this an annual thing," Darr advised Dowagiac City Council Monday night.
"I remember when I was in school," said Darr, a 1945 classmate of Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe. "Arbor Day was a big deal. We had more fun. We planted trees and we learned about what trees mean to us."
"Since then," Darr lamented, "we've gone to basketball, TV and computers. Kids don't understand what it is to plant trees. Basically, we're hoping we can follow through with this proclamation and make Dowagiac the Dogwood Tree City of the United States of America."
"This thing's getting exciting," Darr said of the many organizations lining up in support. "So many people want to get involved – the Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, the city Parks Department, Dowagiac Rotary Club, the Masons of Peninsular Lodge 10 and Dowagiac Conservation Club, among others.
"We have the support also of about four landscape and garden companies, FFA, 4-H groups and Boy and Girl Scouts. We already have some school groups getting involved in making posters for an Arbor Day contest to give kids an idea what this is all about.
"If we teach them how to plant trees, someday they can go and look at what they did 10 years ago," Darr said.
J. Sterling Morton in 1872 proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for planting trees.
The Arbor Day holiday was first observed with the planting of more than 1 million trees in Nebraska.
Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world.
Trees can reduce erosion of topsoil by wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate the temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen and provide wildlife habitat.
Trees are a renewable resource that yield paper, wood for homes, fuel for fires and beautify communities.
Trees in the city boost property values and enhance the economic vitality of business areas.
"Trees, wherever they are planted, are a source of joy and spiritual renewal," Dowagiac City Council's March 26 Arbor Day proclamation states.
Dowagiac's tree ordinance, given first reading Jan. 22, principally regulates trees in public places, including rights of way, although it also provides for removal of dead and diseased trees on private property when they pose a threat to public health, safety and welfare or other trees.
As outlined at the Jan. 8 City Council meeting, the nine-page ordinance is a required first step to attaining status as "Dogwood Tree City USA."
"It also, and I think this is very important for a lot of people, regulates the trimming of trees in public rights of way – particularly electric lines – and provides that appropriate permitting and insurance requirements be undertaken prior to doing that trimming. That's another real key issue," former City Manager Bill Nelson said at the time. "We hire our own to do city electric lines, but (other utilities) have their own crews as well and, as it stands now, can butcher trees. We've seen that happen before.
"This will at least give us the opportunity to review what we expect them to do and require that they have proper insurance and permit and a certified arborist on staff to oversee what they're doing. It's a step in the right direction and culminates a lot of hard work that the community has participated in along with (city Department of Public Services Director) Don Hallowell and his staff to craft this ordinance," Nelson said.
"I've been hollering for years the way they butcher trees and I'm really happy to be on that board," said Second Ward Councilman Bob Schuur, who made the motion and is also a Cemetery Board member. "I'm so happy Ed (Darr) got this ball rolling."
Final action followed at the council's next meeting Feb. 12.
The city designated the Cemetery Board as the Tree Board.