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Pembroke plants a tree to celebrate Arbor Day 2013
Arbor Day 1
Pembroke Mayor Mary Warnell holds a dogwood tree as City Project Manger Ricky McCoy, left, and city worker Aaron Cook help place the tree in the ground Friday behind City Hall in celebration of Arbor Day. - photo by Crissie Elric

A small crowd gathered outside of City Hall in Pembroke Friday morning to watch as a new dogwood tree was planted in honor of Arbor Day in Georgia.

Around 20 people including Pembroke City Council members, Pembroke Garden Club members, residents and county representatives gathered for the small celebration that included the tree planting and cake and punch to celebrate the 10th year Pembroke was named as a Tree City USA.

“This gives us a time to appreciate the value of trees,” Pembroke Mayor Mary Warnell said. “Some of those values that we think of always are that (trees) help prevent soil erosion and we know that it beautifies our community when we have trees. We also conserve energy by providing shade, and we all know in the summer the best place to get is under a big shade tree to cool down.”

Warnell told the crowd Arbor Day in Georgia is celebrated earlier than the rest of the nation, and also gave a brief history of the holiday.

“It’s always done the third Friday in February in Georgia with the reason being that with our zone that we live in, we need to plant our trees between November and mid March in order for the roots to get established before the heat and drought of the summer months,” she said.

“Arbor Day nationwide is celebrated in April … Georgia’s was actually designated on the third Friday in February in 1941, and the very first time that Arbor Day was recognized in Georgia was 1890.”

Read more in the Feb. 16 edition of the News.

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