By NewsLine Staff
In celebration of Florida Arbor Day, 50 volunteers from the Murabella community, aided by Smokey Bear and members of the Florida Forest Service, planted 1000 Red Cedar seedlings throughout the neighborhood.
Seedlings and mulch were obtained through a Florida Forest Service grant and will help replace trees lost in the community as a result of diseases killing slash pine trees in central and northeast Florida.
County Forester Greg Dunn has been working with the Murabella community for the past year in efforts to help preserve the existing tree stock and was instrumental in helping the community obtain the state grant for new seedlings.
Brian Wing, a member of the Community Development District for Murabella, thanked the forest service for their assistance as well as Gators Dockside restaurant and Publix supermarket for their support of the volunteers who planted the seedlings.
“Volunteers from seven years old to 70 years old participated in the planting, along with members of Boy Scout Troop 330 and community volunteers from nearby churches,” Wing said.
The community hopes to make the Arbor Day planting an annual event in an effort to raise awareness to the importance of trees in our natural environment and to focus attention on the vital work of the Florida Forest Service.
Photo courtesy Brian Wing
Volunteers joined Smokey Bear to plant seedlings in Murabella.
