Key Club plants Arbor Week tree

Photo courtesy of Foxcroft Academy

TREE PLANTING FOR ARBOR WEEK – The Foxcroft Academy Key Club planted a flowering crab apple tree by the school dormitories as part of the town of Dover-Foxcroft’s Arbor Week observance.

DOVER-FOXCROFT – In honor of Arbor Week in Maine, the town of Dover-Foxcroft and the Foxcroft Academy Key Club have planted a flowering crab apple tree between the two dormitories on the Foxcroft Academy campus.

The planting is part of an ongoing effort by Town Manager Jack Clukey to ensure that Dover-Foxcroft lives up to its designation as a Tree City USA by the Arbor Day Foundation, an honor bestowed upon towns that demonstrate excellence in forestry management. Since earning the recognition three years ago, the town office has made an effort to plant new trees, replace aging ones and encourage other organizations to plant in order to help raise awareness about forestry and beautify the community.

Clukey said that most of the town’s trees in the urban area are close to 100 years old and many have to be removed each year as they become hazards.  “This is a chance to realize that while we cut trees, we also have to plant new ones or we’ll eventually run out,” said Clukey, who has spearheaded plantings at Kiwanis Park and the SeDoMoCha School over the past few years. Clukey also said that the town has received a project canopy grant to plant trees in the urban area this fall and next spring as well as some planters to allow for six small trees to be placed in the downtown area to provide more green space.

“I think it’s important to help the community stay involved and to promote awareness for the importance of trees and sustainable forestry,” said Avery Carroll, president-elect of the Foxcroft Academy Key Club, which covered the remaining cost of the tree after Foxcroft Agway donated a portion.

Following the planting, members of Key Club visited second- and third-grade classes at SeDoMoCha and read Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” to students.

“It’s wonderful to see our students involved in such a meaningful community project,” said Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey. “And we are honored to have our campus be the destination for this year’s new tree.”