For Arbor Day, the City of Salem is inviting the public to join in a tree-planting extravaganza at Minto-Brown Island Park on Friday, April 25, 2025.
We are hoping to recruit as many as 50 to 100 volunteers to help with the project, which will be from 9 a.m. to noon. Let us know online that you’re coming so we know how many people to prepare for or sign in at the Parking Lot 3 picnic shelter meeting spot. Trees and materials for the event are funded through the voter-approved Safety and Livability Bond. The trees are part of development standards for Minto-Brown’s parking lot upgrades.
A presentation and display about 2025 bond projects is planned at the beginning of the event.
Trees, the canopy formed by their branches and leaves, and the network of roots below the soil form an essential part of our community. They make Salem more livable and more beautiful. And they are an essential part of our city’s natural infrastructure (along with our streams, wetlands, meadows, soils, natural areas), providing a variety of economic, environmental, and social benefits.
The first Arbor Day in the world was in 1805 in the small community of Villanueva de la Sierra, Spain, to encourage individuals and groups to plant trees. The first Arbor Day in the United was in Nebraska in 1872. An estimated one million trees were planted that month in Nebraska. Since 2020, Oregon has also celebrated April as Arbor Month.
Here in Salem, we work year-round to enhance and manage the city’s tree canopy through the following programs:
- We are a charter member of Tree City USA in our 50th year of membership. This coming fall, Salem will celebrate our 50-year anniversary as a Tree City.
- We have developed a street tree inventory to document and track tree canopy throughout Salem.
- We have focused tree planting efforts, in partnership with Friends of Trees, to increase tree canopy in parks, along streets, and within riparian areas.
- We have also signed on as a founding member of Cities4Forests, a newer initiative focused on the value and benefit of trees in cities and forests across the globe.
Read more about City tree programs, guidelines, and ordinances on Salem’s website here:
