Arbor Week Recap

Edmond once again experienced an Arbor Week full of engaging activities this year! While Arbor Week always falls during the last full week in March (the 20th-26th this year), this time around festivities extended into the days before and after the official celebration. Read on for some of this year's Arbor Week highlights.

March 14th City Council Meeting

At this meeting, Mayor Charles Lamb proclaimed the celebration of Arbor Week from March 20th-26th. Mark Bays, Oklahoma's State Urban Forestry Coordinator, also presented City Council with Edmond's Tree City USA and Edmond Electric's Tree Line USA recertifications.

Tree Benefit Tags Appeared

If you visited Downtown Edmond, Hafer Park, Mitch Park, or the Arboretum at the end of March, you may have noticed colorful tags attached to trees, exclaiming some of their many benefits! Some of them even included the lifetime monetary benefits of that specific tree. Keep an eye out for these again in the future- they are likely to make a comeback!
tree tag.jpg
UCO Tree Planting

Mitch Park Mulching Event

On Thursday, March 24th, 23 volunteers joined Urban Forestry at Mitch Park's west parking lot to mulch trees along Marilyn Williams Dr. Spreading large mulch areas out to the drip line of big trees improves the soil, creates a better environment for root growth and reduces stress for trees. We will continue our mulching projects through future volunteer events, so be sure to keep an eye on the event schedule.

Tree Planting at UCO

123 Edmond residents came out to Baumann and Ayers on the east side of UCO campus, where they planted 39 trees between the parking lot and the street on Saturday, March 26th. Tree species included those able to withstand harsh growing conditions, such as cedar elm, Shumard oak, desert willow, and Arizona cypress. Urban Forestry partnered with the UCO Physical Plant on this planting project.

Arbor Day Art Show

Fifth graders from 19 schools submitted entries into this year's Arbor Day Art Contest. From each school, the Urban Forestry Commission selected First, Second, and Third place and an Honorable Mention to participate in the Arbor Day Art Show. The Edmond Historical Society and Museum hosted the exhibit again this year, with continued sponsorship from Frame Master Gallery and Citizens Bank of Edmond.

A new "Best of Show" component was introduced this year as well, judged by members of the Edmond Visual Arts Commission. Best of Show awardees were selected from the First Place artworks for each school. The students awarded First, Second and Third Place Best of Show were recognized at the City Council meeting on March 28th. See below for names of all students participating in the Arbor Day Art Show and the awards they received.
Arbor Day Art Show

Angie Debo

1st - Kristina Waisner (3rd Place Best of Show)
2nd - Minji Park
3rd - Trystan Turner
Honorable Mention - Addison Roberts

Centennial

1st - Eva Baxter (1st Place Best of Show)
2nd - Channing Weber
3rd - Courtney Talley
Honorable Mention - Olivia Atendido

Charles Haskell

1st - Angelina Lang
2nd - Kira Shaw
3rd - Emily (Grace) McKinney
Honorable Mention - Mason Nguyen

Chisholm


1st - Meera Patel
2nd - Celes Mathews
3rd - Ryley Watkins
Honorable Mention - Emily Scorse

Clegern


1st - Angelo Dindoyal (2nd Place Best of Show)
2nd - Olivia Williams
3rd - Lydia Black
Honorable Mention - Wenny Xu

Cross Timbers


1st - Allison Lewis
2nd - Jaylen Coe
3rd - Sylvia Tant
Honorable Mention - Lily Weaver

Frontier

1st - Rachel Rayburn
2nd - Ella Misialek
3rd - Nayyar Kibria
Honorable Mention - Hayden Deaton

Heritage


1st - Shelby Taylor
2nd - Anna Hobson
3rd - Arden Griggs
Honorable Mention - Jackson Gardner

Ida Freeman


1st - Alex Walker
2nd - Jeremiah Duvall
3rd - Rylee Burgess Sprinkle
Honorable Mention - Tyler Westmoreland

John Ross

1st - Aryonna Robinson
2nd - Gabriele Dubose
3rd - Joseph Henry
Honorable Mention - Zach Kennedy

Northern Hills


1st - Tae Won Kim
2nd - Katie Schlosser
3rd - Mallory Gifford
Honorable Mention - Jalee Urban

Oklahoma Christian Academy


1st - Jack Howard
2nd - Santiago Diaz Moreno (Higgins)
3rd - Ethan Gould
Honorable Mention - Carter Owens

Orvis Risner


1st - Sofi Swenhaugen
2nd - Cooper Nelson
3rd - Jacob Doyle
Honorable Mention - Damodar Pai

Russell Dougherty


1st - Paige Watson
2nd - Madeline Bryan
3rd - Stella Hardy
Honorable Mention - George Kamp

St. Mary's Episcopal School

1st - Mia McDonough
2nd - Naomi Williams
3rd - Evan Smith
Honorable Mention - Sam Mooney

Sunset

1st - Hong Ngoc (Pearl)
2nd - Dontez King
3rd - Joslyn Torres
Honorable Mention - Trevor Roony

Washington Irving

1st - Max Wong
2nd - Paulina Lucas
3rd - Grace Pierce
Honorable Mention - Jason Nelson

West Field

1st - Avni Ohri
2nd - Gigi Price
3rd - Hannah Seyoum
Honorable Mention - Katie Niblett

Will Rogers

1st - Sayda Thomason
2nd - Dayeon Lee
3rd - Everett Shinn
Honorable Mention - Cheyenne Cody


View more topics from the Summer 2016 edition of Edmond Tree Mail