Trees, Minds Get Chance to Grow at Pierce’s Arbor Day
Despite overcast skies and occasional chilly breezes, nearly 3,000 people--mostly parents with young children--participated Sunday afternoon in the first Arbor Day celebration at Pierce College, which included the planting of a dozen trees around campus.
“We’re going to teach people today about trees and about their intrinsic value,” said Jacky deHaviland, vice president of the college’s Natural Resources Management Club, a co-sponsor of the event.
Scattered around the bucolic campus of rolling grassy hills, farm animals and the occasional stack of hay, the event sometimes had the smell and feel of a small-town country fair.
Children and adults strolled around to different animal pens, picked up information from booths, and picnicked on hamburgers and hot dogs. They sat on the grass to listen to the stories of Alan “Spirit Hawk” Salazar, a member of the Chumash and Tataviam tribes, and watched folk dancers perform.
The event also was intended to showcase Pierce College and the “value of nature and open land” as the Los Angeles Community College District trustees are holding public hearings on a controversial proposal to turn 145 acres of the farm-like campus into a golf course, said Carrie Briggs-Adams, vice president of West Valley Eagles Track Club, another event co-sponsor.
Throughout the day, trees were the unifying theme of the activities. Arborists spoke and children were given “baby trees” in plastic vials to take home and plant. The event also celebrated the 150th birthday of Luther Burbank, the California horticulturist who has been credited with introducing more than 800 new plant varieties.
Mick Sears, professor of natural resources management at Pierce, led the planting of the first sapling--a coast live oak--near the Calvert Street entrance of the college. He was assisted by Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Los Angeles), who was dressed as Smokey Bear, and about 10 children pushing dirt over the tree’s roots with shovels, rakes and bare hands.
“People need to understand that trees are much more important than just for landscaping. They are our connection to the earth,” Sears said. Trees provide shade that can lower a home’s energy costs and improve air quality by using carbon dioxide and emitting oxygen, he said. Trees also help prevent soil erosion in sloping areas and provide habitat for wildlife.
Later in the day, he led the planting of California oak, white alder, purple leaf plum and jacaranda trees.
A petition circulated at the event asked the Pierce College Council, the Community College District Board of Trustees, the Los Angeles City Council and county Board of Supervisors to “save Pierce College Farm from development.”
“I have some real concerns about the mission of an educational institution and whether it should be to build a golf course,” said Wildman, who also chairs the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.
Arbor Day, which commemorates the importance of trees, has been celebrated in California for more than a century, event organizers say. In the Los Angeles area in recent years it has been celebrated as early as the first week of March and as late as May.
