Libby Tree Board seeks participation on Arbor Day - and beyond

Friday’s Arbor Day celebration in Libby roughly coincides with a local tree-related anniversary — the city’s 25th year as a Tree City USA community, a feat made possible in part by the all-volunteer Libby Tree Board.

Residents can celebrate the holiday and the milestone beginning 4 p.m. at Riverfront Park. Libby Mayor Brent Teske will read a proclamation, then Tree Board members and volunteers will plant flowering crab and showy ash trees around the Veterans Memorial site, followed by plantings at Fireman’s Park and another location in the city.

Organizers are encouraging the public to attend and participate.

Libby is one of 41 communities in Montana and 3,400 nationwide that participates in the Tree City USA program, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation. To participate, a community must meet four standards, according to the Foundation’s website: having a tree care ordinance, celebrating Arbor Day, spending at least $2 per capita annually on tree care, and maintaining a Tree Board.

The Tree Board’s current members are April Rainey, Russ Gautreaux, Gary Huntsberger and Brian Baxter, and they could use a little company.

“We’d like a few more board members who can work in some capacity,” to assist with pruning, planting and other seasonal tasks, Gautreaux said. Volunteers need not be professional foresters, however.

The Tree Board also would like to hear from people whose property abuts open space on city property and who are interested in having a tree planted, or who would like help caring for already planted city trees.

The Tree Board has planted hundreds of mostly deciduous trees in Libby since 1998, when a microburst took out many large Engelmann spruce along Lincoln Boulevard.

According to a fact sheet prepared by the Tree Board, species planted since then include Manchurian ash, Norway maple, river birch, flowering crab, flowering plum, Crimson King honey locust and burr oak.

The same fact sheet sets forth the Tree Board’s goals for 2018, which includes working with the Libby City Council to continue discussing the Tree Board’s role and challenges it faces, including diseased trees and how to deal with tree damage caused by plowing snow, cutting grass and other activities.

For more information on joining or utilizing the Tree Board or caring for trees, Gautreaux said to call 406-293-3108.

For information on Libby’s tree ordinance or the management of city trees, call City Administrator Jim Hammons at 406-293-2731.