NEWBURYPORT — Looking to teach fifth-grade students why trees are vitally important before they begin crafting entries for a Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Arbor Day Poster Contest, Newburyport Tree Commission Secretary Marcia Edson recently visited the Edward G. Molin Upper Elementary School.
“The cool thing is the Molin has won (the contest) twice,” Edson said, during Thursday afternoon’s visit to the Low Street school.
Edson met with fifth-graders in the school library where she began by explaining a bit about the Tree Commission, starting with how they select trees to plant in the city that will be short growers, as larger trees would struggle to thrive and take too much space.
“Once we decide on what the trees are going to fit and what space, we go out and we walk the neighborhoods, we ride our bikes around, we find places that need trees, because we want Newburyport to have what’s called a very lush canopy, which means lots of trees, lots of leaves,” Edson said.
She asked students why the Tree Commission would care about that kind of thing.
“Because it’s healthy and they produce a lot of oxygen,” one student guessed.
Another student guessed trees needed more help because concrete sidewalks makes it harder for roots to grow.
Edson said both answers were on the mark, before speaking more on how they care for the trees.
“One of the things we do is hire a company to come and water those trees for the first three years of their lives,” Edson said.
Moving on, Edson began to speak about the poster competition the students will be working on when they next go on vacation, explaining to fifth-graders that their third and fourth-grade peers would be the ones voting on their posters.
“A winning poster that comes from the Molin will then be sent to the state, and there will be a judging board of the state that will pick one poster for the entire state. And that poster will be used on all their internet materials and flyers and things that they send out throughout the state,” Edson said.
A hand shot up as one student asked what the prize would be.
“The prize is the school that wins gets a tree, and then material for arts and science and a big celebration,” Edson said.
Edson explained that two of the trees planted by the school’s play area came as a result of Molin winning in the past.
“You’ll have to go out and poke around and see if you can find them,” Edson said.
The theme for the posters this year is: “If a tree could talk.”
“Think about that. If trees could talk, what would they want us to know about how important they are for our environment,” Edson said.
She then pulled out some bags and asked for student volunteers, calling them to the front of the library to pull out the contents.
The first student came up and pulled out a little fake bug and fake bird from the bag.
The student was asked what those items had to do with trees, and answered that both bugs and birds use trees as a habitat, which Edson agreed was right.
“The birds might eat the insect. The insect might eat another insect or might eat something within the tree, or the berries that are on the tree. So trees provide a habitat, even trees that are on our streets,” Edson said.
Next, a new volunteer came up and pulled sponges from a bag.
“The trees soak up water into their roots like sponges,” the student answered, when asked what sponges had to do with trees.
The next item pulled out was an umbrella parasol, which the chosen student correctly related to trees offering people shade.
“The importance of shade is it’s going to cool the environment, and if that cools the environment, how does that help our issues with energy? It diminishes the need for air conditioning. So that improves our carbon footprint. We aren’t using as much energy,” Edson said.
A facemask was the penultimate item, with Edson explaining that similar to how the mask filters air, trees filter the carbon dioxide humans produce when they breathe and converts it to oxygen.
“The oxygen is a pure kind of air. So the trees are sometimes called lungs of the environment,” Edson said.
Finally, a student pulled out a picture of kids climbing a tree and smiling, with Edson saying that the picture showed the element of trees that is most often forgotten.
“Trees are fun,” Edson said.