Broken Arrow Celebrates Arbor Week By Planting New Trees

Some new additions have been made to a park in Broken Arrow that city leaders hope will last for generations.

Each tree planted carries a tradition dating back to the late 1800s a few states north.

"It was a way just to get the residents of the state of Nebraska to get more involved and see the value in trees," said the Broken Arrow Parks Department's forestry crew leader Blake Matthews.

That value is seen in Broken Arrow.

"We actually presented a proclamation this week to be Arbor week in the city of Broken Arrow," Vice Mayor Christi Gillespie said.

Members of the city's parks department planted two new trees at South 41st and New Orleans Street.

"Looking at trees, knowing that they are living organisms, and they get old and they die eventually, we need to constantly be planting new ones to replace the old," Matthews said.

He and his team filled in the dirt and watered the trees, giving them a new place to plant their roots.

"We value our urban forests, our green spaces, and we're dedicated to preserving them," said Matthews.

After the wind storm in June 2023, Matthews said it's hard to replace all the trees that were lost, "so many were impacted so quickly," but he and his crew will do their best, one sapling at a time, "April 10th, 1872, Julius Sterling Morton got the state of Nebraska to plant roughly 1 million trees on that first day, so we're trying to live on that legacy," Matthews said.