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Webster Groves panel eyes bigger Arbor Day, outlines fall tree-planting plan
Summary
At its June meeting the Webster Groves Green Space Advisory Commission discussed expanding Arbor Day activities, reported 21 trees planted this spring, and said applications reopen late July for a fall round that could plant about 15 trees per event with volunteer support.
The Webster Groves Green Space Advisory Commission on Tuesday discussed plans to expand Arbor Day programming and confirmed a fall round of street- and yard-tree plantings after reporting 21 trees were planted this spring.
Commission member Ivonne, who oversees part of the commission’s tree efforts, said the spring round resulted in 21 trees “in the ground” and that staff plans to reopen applications “late July” for a fall planting. She said the commission expects to vet more applications than it can plant and that a realistic planting goal for a coordinated event would be “about 15 trees.”
The discussion centered on how big to make future Arbor Day events and how to balance ambitions with volunteer capacity and budget limits. Members proposed options ranging from small education-focused activities for children and families to larger, festival-style events with bands and food trucks. No additional funding was promised; one member cautioned that the commission’s earlier budget request already accounts for known costs.
The commission also weighed logistics for planting. Ivonne described two options: a single large volunteer planting day in the fall or keeping the city-run planting schedule (which often occurs during weekday work hours to avoid overtime). “If we gear it towards one big planting day … we can work towards that,” she said, offering to notify interested volunteers with a week’s notice for smaller weekday plantings.
Members raised program details they plan to finalize before the August meeting: whether to continue the poetry contest through Webster Arts, whether to produce an updated trees-of-Webster booklet, and whether to coordinate with local garden clubs and schools to distribute saplings to first graders. The commission also discussed burial of administrative load by centralizing checklists and onboarding materials for future organizers.
Rory, vice chair and lead of the commission’s EcoED program, reported strong recent turnout for a Blackburn Park presentation: “I stopped counting at 75 and people were still coming up around the edges,” he said, noting the event’s success as an outreach model the commission may repeat.
Next steps: the commission will reopen tree-planting applications in late July, revisit Arbor Day scale and volunteer plans in August, and coordinate with Webster Arts and other partners on potential programming.
