Pictured: David Gunn. All photos by Ursula Ruhl, WKT.
by Don Corrigan
In anticipation of the nationally-designated tree holiday of April 26, the city of Webster Groves set aside Wednesday, April 17, for its formal Arbor Day Ceremony and Awards Celebration.
Prior to its official celebration on the evening of April 17, citizen volunteers and city team members planted 200 trees to honor Arbor Day. At 5 p.m., that day an awards ceremony commenced at Southwest Park Pavilion.
Tree Steward Lynnda Greene was posthumously granted a Tree of Distinction Award. Greene was a Master Gardener, and a member of the International Dark-Sky Association. She was praised for her love of nature, animals and the environment.
Greene was a member of the Webster Groves Garden Club and founding member of Webster Groves Greenkeepers. She assisted the city’s Greenspace Commission and one of her passions before her death in May 2023 was promoting the NO-MOW green movement to benefit pollinators.
The honor for Greene was followed with a tree tour given by David Gunn. An arborist certified by the International Society of Arboriculture, Gunn’s talents were enlisted by the city’s “Eco-Ed” program series.
Arborist’s Tree Walk
On the tree walk, Gunn pointed out some of the city’s most interesting trees in Southwest Park. He also spoke to the hikers on the basics of tree anatomy, soil structure, tree identification and his favorite park trees .
“I like the black locusts that reach down and touch the ground with their trunks,” said Gunn. “I love when we can see trees that are allowed to do their own thing, instead of always being managed to be neat and tiny.
“There’s also a great hackberry that I love,” noted Gunn. “What parks can do – that residences can’t do – is let trees age and fall apart a little bit. Let the woodpeckers and the raccoons add some character as well.”
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