The City of Billings Parks and Recreation Department would like to invite the public to attend our annual Arbor Day Ceremony at Centennial Park on Thursday, May 4th, at 12:30pm.
This year marks Billings’ 40th consecutive year as a designated “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Day Foundation! Please, join us as Deputy Mayor Mike Boyett accepts our Tree City USA award and we plant the Ceremonial Arbor Day Tree.
This year, we will continue our rich history by celebrating Arbor Day at Centennial Park. Our celebration will kick off in the morning with educational booths for over 400 fourth grade students from across the city, including tree planting, environmental education, and staying healthy. Following the educational program, the community is invited to join the official ceremony and planting of the Arbor Day Tree. Throughout the day, students and community volunteers will plant 18 trees in Centennial Park.
Our parks are home to over 10,000 trees. The Parks and Recreation Department understands the many benefits that trees provide to our park users and community as a whole. From providing shade to storm water management, urban temperature regulation to increasing property values, trees have a larger impact on our everyday lives than we often recognize. Throughout the year, our forestry staff expect to plant more than 200 young trees across city parks.
In Nebraska in 1872, J Sterling Morton proposed the idea of a day to plant trees, “Arbor Day”. On that day, prizes were offered for the county that could plant the most trees properly. One million trees were said to have been planted on that first Arbor Day. By 1882, states all across the country were celebrating Arbor Day. In 2014, Billings Parks and Recreation was recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as having one of the best Arbor Day Celebrations in the country!