COLUMBIA FALLS - Columbia Falls Elementary School students got to plant their own saplings to take home at the 150th anniversary Arbor Day celebration.
The US Forest Service (USFS), the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) and the Columbia Falls Tree Board joined fourth-grade students at River’s Edge Park to teach the kids how to properly plant and take care of trees.
The students also got to learn how to take core samples from trees and took a walk around the park.
“We just love to introduce the kids to trees and Arbor Day and how important it is to the environment,” said Columbia Falls Tree Board Chair Doug Karper.
Columbia Falls has always celebrated Arbor Day on the first Friday of May because they had to pick a certain day for the grant process, and they wanted to cut down on conflicts with other events.
At the park, students helped plant three spruce trees with the help of local arboreal experts to restore some of the trees lost by storm damage over the winter.
