Posted Saturday, April 30, 2022.

HUNTINGTON – More than 80 volunteers helped celebrate a special occasion Saturday morning – the planting of an arboretum at Evergreen Park.

“This is something that Huntington residents and visitors will be able to appreciate and enjoy for years to come,” Parks & Recreation Superintendent Steve Yoder said Saturday. “As the arboretum grows and develops we’ll add new walking trails and an outdoor event center. This is just going to be a great addition to our parks system and a place not only for the community to gather, but also for people to enjoy nature and learn more about Indiana history.”

The arboretum will feature 30 species – all but one native to Indiana – and 80 young trees were planted this week from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon. The trees averaged about 1.5 inches to 2 inches in diameter and ranged from about 6 feet to 15 feet tall, depending on the species.

Starting earlier this week, the Huntington Parks & Recreation Department and Yellowstone Landscape worked together to plot and dig holes at precise locations selected to promote the trees’ healthy growth and development. To do this they would mark the chosen spot and place a flag where the hole should be dug. As the trees arrived, labels attached to their trunks identified the species and corresponded with the flagged locations.

Yellowstone Landscape and the Parks & Recreation Department planted roughly half of the 80 trees between Thursday and Friday. Volunteers from the community who wanted to be part of the project finished the work earlier today. Some dug holes, placed the young trees and cut off the protective burlap sacks from the trees’ roots. Other volunteers filled in around the newly planted trees with soil and surrounded them with mulch.

Mayor Richard Strick was among those on hand planting trees Saturday morning. At the start of the volunteer event, he read a special proclamation to mark the arboretum’s beginnings and to officially declare the day as Arbor Day in Huntington.

The proclamation highlighted the environmental benefits a healthy tree population provide to communities that are proactive in planting and caring for them. Some of these include preventing soil erosion, regulating temperatures, reducing heating and cooling costs, cleaning the air and providing habitat for wildlife. Through its commitment to caring for Huntington’s tree canopy, the city has been recognized by the national Tree City USA program for the past 26 years.

“Through the arboretum and other investments in Huntington’s tree canopy, we will continue to care for our surroundings and make sure Huntington remains a great place to call home for our kids and future generations,” Mayor Strick said.

Planning for the arboretum started last summer, and the city was awarded a Community & Urban Forestry Assistance (CUFA) sub grant of $12,880 toward the project this past October. CUFA is administered by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and utilizes federal funding.

Members of the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Environmental Stewardship (MACES) played key roles in taking the initial idea for an arboretum from concept to reality. MACES task force member Kathryn Lisinicchia worked alongside Hannah Staley, a City of Huntington intern and environmental studies student at Indiana University, to apply for the CUFA grant in summer 2021. Dr. Collin Hobbs, another MACES member and professor of biology and environmental science at Huntington University, lent his expertise to the project by helping select which species to include and mapping precise locations in the arboretum where each tree would be most likely to thrive.

The arboretum will be located throughout Evergreen Park, repurposing an underutilized space where two ball fields were no longer used. Preparations at the site began last fall, with the Parks & Recreation Department working to remove light fixtures and level the ground.

Along with the 80 trees, signage will be installed throughout the park to identify the tree species and provide educational information about them. The city intends to apply for accredited arboretum status at a future date, which would make it a unique offering in northeast Indiana. The nearest accredited arboretums to Huntington are located in the Indiana communities of Valparaiso, Richmond and Bloomington.

The arboretum will be open to visitors during park hours from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. and available for school field trips and other groups. Evergreen Park is located at 1370 Evergreen Road.