Schools

Arbor Day Trees Planted at Ramona Elementary

Magnolia, fruitless mulberry and eucalyptus trees now adorn the campus, as a donation from SDG&E.

Worms, dirty hands, shovels and a huge cherry picker — oh boy!

It wasn’t the average day at on Wednesday. It was Arbor Day and students helped plant trees donated to the school by SDG&E. They answered questions related to their lessons about photosynthesis and the importance of trees to the environment at a morning assembly. Then students in the 4th, 5th and 6th grades helped shovel around 16 of the 20 new magnolias, eucalyptus and fruitless mulberry trees.

“When will it be our turn?” one boy asked politely as dignataries finished shoveling soil around the first tree. Representatives from state Senator Joel Anderson and Assemblyman Brian Jones' offices came to offer proclamations and congratulations.

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An added plus for students — wriggling worms to capture in paper cups. Children also received tiny strawberry trees which they learned to repot into larger containers with potting soil.

Principal Phyllis Munoz said the mulberry trees in the grassy quad area replace two old trees that had to be taken out.

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A representative of Davey Resource Group, a vegetation management contractor for SDG&E, said each of the mulberries will provide 50 feet of shade when fully grown and they will grow 50 feet tall.

The school and SDG&E will research how to provide benches under the trees.

A CalFire forester and member of the Arbor Day Foundation presented a plaque to SDG&E as part of the Tree Line USA program. The program recognizes utility companies for using best practices in providing electricity safely and promoting good care of trees.

Arbor Day was started by a Nebraska journalist, Julius Sterling Morton, who later became President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. President Nixon made it a national day in 1972 and now it is recognized globally with the planting of trees. The US non-profit Arbor Day Foundation was founded in 1972.


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