By Gail Church | Executive Director, Tree Musketeers
Thank you to everyone who supported Arbor Day 2014 on March 8 as a donor or a volunteer! Volunteers and our Community Forester will continue caring for the new Arbor Day trees planted on Millennium Row. Here is a little background to inform how important your contribution was.
Tree Musketeers founder, Tara Church, represented America’s youth on President Clinton’s White House Millennium Council in 1999. The prestigious group planned Millennium Green celebrations around the country to include tree-lining West Grand Avenue adjacent to DWP’s Scattergood plant. The barren .35 mile street connects El Segundo with its beach although it is actually in the City of Los Angeles. Initial resistance by the City to the Millennium Tree planting was based on belief that nothing would survive there since two previous City plantings had failed. Finally a deal was struck that left Tree Musketeers responsible for both the planting and ongoing maintenance.
On January 29, 2000, 330 volunteers planted 104 Melaleuca trees on the street now known as Millennium Row. The property immediately to the north contains smokestacks and the heavy industrial facilities of DWP’s Scattergood plant, and an oil refinery borders the south side. Industrial soil and air pollution coupled with the salty ocean environment makes the area inhospitable to green things and necessitates ongoing intensive care for these trees. Tree Musketeers tall and small will continue to do their best to prove the nay-sayers wrong and maintain a green street to connect El Segundo with its beach.
Looking forward to Arbor Day next year? So are we! Join us on March 7, 2015.
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