Community Corner

Freehold Township Prepares for State Arbor Day Celebration

The municipality is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a Tree City USA town.

Volunteers, school children, elected officials and an astronaut will gather at Durand Park Memorial Arboretum in Freehold on Friday, April 29 for the state’s 2011 Arbor Day celebration.

Freehold Township was selected as the site of the state’s Arbor Day plans because the municipality is celebrating its 30th anniversary as a Tree City USA town.

The event will begin at 8 a.m., when approximately 150 volunteers work on planting 135 trees on the property. A color guard and a bag piper will open the Arbor Day ceremony at 11 a.m. The Clifton T. Barkalow Middle School band and chorus, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School band, the Freehold Intermediate School band, and the Shore Regional High School band will perform during the celebration. In addition, NJ Forest Service Chief Lynn Fleming, Freehold Township Mayor David Salkin, Shade Tree Commission Chairman George Klinger, and Freehold Township School District Business Administrator Brian Boyle will speak during the ceremony.

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The highlight of the event will be an appearance by astronaut Gregory T. Linteris. Linteris grew up in Demarest and when he was slated to join a space shuttle mission in April 1997, he worked with the Demarest Shade Tree Commission to bring eastern white pine seeds on the flight. Freehold Township and Freehold Borough were in a group of 15 towns that received the seeds, which have been tended at the New Jersey Forest Nursery in Jackson. While typical germination for an eastern white pine seedling is 10 to 14 days, the space shuttle seeds sprouted in half that time, according to New Jersey Shade Tree Federation.

Linteris will assist other officials in planting the eastern white pine at Durand Park at the end of the ceremony.

Find out what's happening in Freeholdwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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