Arbor Day 2013

Arbor Day Activities in Chattanooga, 2013

This year's Arbor Day celebration was held in the Chattanooga National Cemetery on Friday, March 1 with two purposes in mind:
1. To replace trees that were lost in storms.
2. To honor the veterans of our nation's wars and conflicts.

Following a series of devastating storms that caused the loss of over 100 old and magnificent trees in 2011 there was little money in the Cemetery's budget for the replacement of these trees. As good fortune would have it, the City of Chattanooga had money in a special grant account earmarked to plant trees as a mitigation measure to replace trees that were removed for the new Volkswagen assembly plant. To achieve this goal the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development awarded the City of Chattanooga a $200,000 Endowment Grant in 2010 to plant trees far and wide within the city. City Forester Gene Hyde volunteered to use some of these monies to reforest the cemetery. Hyde worked with the Rear Admiral (retired) Noah Long and Cemetery Director Ms. Deborah Kendrick and her staff to choose appropriate trees, planting locations and to script the Arbor Day Ceremony. A total of 83 trees representing twenty species were chosen for planting. Seventy-three of these were planted on a special work day in December, 2012. The remaining ten were planted on Arbor Day by veterans in period uniforms at a special ceremony that highlighted re-enactors from all of our nation's wars and conflicts. Also featured were a color guard, The Choo Choo Chorus singing the National Anthem, a twenty-one gun salute, and the City of Chattanooga receiving recertification as a Tree City, USA community for the twenty-third year. Following the ceremony a group of volunteers including re-enactors in uniform planted the remaining ten trees.

Photo by Madeline Cornelius

Photo by Jim Mears

 Photo by Steve Winn