THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 30, 1995 TAG: 9503280115
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
People looking for a buyer's market on trees need go no farther than the Virginia Zoo.
On April 8, the Norfolk Arbor Day Committee will give away 2,000 trees. The mass freebie is in celebration of the group's third annual Arbor Day Family Festival.
The theme for the event is ``Releaf Norfolk - Keep Our Future Growing.''
The 18- to 24-inch seedlings come in flowering dogwood, red bud, river birch, goldenrain tree and lacebark elm. The $2 entry fee to the zoo is all that's required to take one home. Three thousand other trees will be given away at Norfolk's Botanical Garden, and Janaf and Southern shopping centers.
The Arbor Day Committee is a local organization that promotes the value and planting of trees.
``Trees are an important resource, especially in an urban environment,'' said Mark Schneider, a horticulturist at the zoo and a committee member. ``The trees we selected do particularly well in an urban setting. Most grow slowly enough that they can be placed on balconies or patios before having to be put in the ground.''
The festival is a family affair and is expected to draw more than 2,000 people, Schneider said. Representatives of the city government, the Norfolk school system and the Virginia Department of Forestry have been invited. The event is highlighted by the planting of a tree by a city official. Last year, then Vice Mayor Joseph N. Green Jr. planted a Chinese elm.
The giveaway will be augmented by family activities centered around tents and a podium near the zoo's front entrance. There will be a variety of children's events, including storytelling, building bird feeders and a demonstration of how paper is made, starting from pulp to the finished product. Arts and crafts, American Indian displays and a bird show also will be featured. There will be several educational displays, and Smokey the Bear also will visit.
``Besides offering people an opportunity to grow their own tree, it's a great family day,'' Schneider said.
The committee's fledgling forest is being stored in the zoo's refrigerators. The group purchases the trees from wholesalers around the country and pays for them with grants from the state forestry department and the selling of wrapping paper made by students in the Norfolk school system. The paper costs $5 per pack and is available at the zoo's gift store. Several Norfolk schoolchildren will be honored for their participation in the Arbor Day Essay Contest and wrapping paper contest.
The festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the zoo, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the shopping centers. The tree-planting ceremony at the zoo begins at 11:30 a.m. Call 441-5227 for more information.
The observance of Arbor Day began in Nebraska during the 1880s. It was initiated by J. Sterling Morton, a nature lover and the editor of Nebraska's first newspaper. During the 1870s and '80s, Morton organized mass tree plantings to provide fuel and shade, and to hold the soil in place. Arbor Day is observed during April (the month of Morton's birth) in Virginia and across the United States. by CNB