Training to be Tree City USA

GENTRY — Tree specialist Peter Rausch was in Gentry on Monday and in Springtown on Tuesday, teaching classes on tree selection, assessing tree health and proper tree pruning. He also offered training on Jet Stinger willow planting and the steps needed to become a Tree City USA.

On Monday, Rausch and Illinois River Watershed Partnership director Delia Haak assisted city employees and members of the Gentry Chamber of Commerce in planting eight trees along the ball field fence at the Gentry City Park. The trees - ash, maple and oak - will hopefully provide more shade in the park in the years to come.

On Monday night at the city council meeting, Rausch emphasized the importance of continuing to plant trees.

“Trees grow old and die, too,” Rausch said, explaining that the city had a grove of trees 60-80 years old and large gaps between additional plantings.

Without additional plantings, one day the trees in the park will be gone, he said. The trees we plant today will be for the benefit of future generations, he said.

Rausch also emphasized the importance of planting a variety of tree species so that if a disease or insect causes one species to die, there will still be other species growing.