College Park Plants Butterfly Garden, Trees for Arbor Day

Community members gathered on Wednesday night to plant a butterfly garden—including two native trees—at Muskogee playground in north College Park to celebrate Arbor Day.

The ceremony included a proclamation reading by College Park Mayor Andrew Fellows and artistic performances by Girl Scout Troop No. 2898 members.

For the 23rd year, College Park was recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree City USA community for its commitment to urban forestry. Mark Wimer, the chairman of the city's tree and landscape board, also shared information about the Alice Kennington Memorial Tree Fund, which currently has more than $30,000 in its coffers, despite getting zero donations over the past year.

A SavATree arborist was on hand to discuss the advantages of ArborKelp, a biostimulant soil amendment added to the butterfly planting area to help reduce the stress of transplant shock to the new plants and promote root growth. Tick repellant tubes were also placed in the surrounding wooded area to control ticks vectoring lyme disease transported by field mice.

The city's committee for a better environment and tree and landscape board, as well as the local Boy and Girl Scouts, took part in the ceremony. For the Boy Scouts, this was the second in a series of tree planting service events. They planted trees at the last weekend, and will plant trees at this coming weekend.

Fellows also re-read a proclamation from December 2011, when the bicycle plaza at Berwyn Road and the trolley trail were named in honor of former city councilman John E. "Jack" Perry, . Fellows said that Perry constantly surprised him, especially when it came to his knowledge of the environment. The viewing is scheduled for today. (

See the photos for more from the evening.