More than 100 people gathered on a warm, sunny spring morning in Lakeland Park this past Saturday for the Cazenovia Tree Commission’s annual Arbor Day celebration and tree planting ceremony. Members of the commission were present to explain the history and significance of Arbor Day as well as to talk about the future of Lakeland Park and its trees; the five middle school members of the Earth Club helped honor the day by reading the official Arbor Day proclamation and Burton Street Elementary School students sang the song “This Pretty Planet.”
The event was scheduled to commemorate the day with the planting of four new trees near the stone wall at the front of the park but, due to unforeseen circumstances, the trees had not arrived in time to be planted.
“It’s a bit like Groundhog’s Day without a groundhog,” joked Tree Commission President Tom Tait.
The four trees — two dawn redwoods and two Katsura trees — will be planted to replace the four black locust trees that were taken down last fall due to old age, poor health and the potential danger they could have presented to the public, said Tree Commission Member Ted Bartlett.
The new trees were purchased by the commission with the assistance of the Earth Club — comprised of Cazenovia Middle School sixth grade students Olivia Emerson, Lili and Ava Gavitt, Molly Hart and Madeline McGreevy — who raised $200 and received a $400 Common Grounds Challenge Grant for the project in January.
The club started in summer 2014 to raise money to help the Earth.
“All we want is to make the Earth a better place,” said club member Molly Hart.
“This club means a lot to us because we’ve tried real hard to keep it going,” said Ava Gavitt. “So far it’s been pretty successful. … Since we got $600 we think it’s going pretty well.”
Tait explained the club’s donation to the tree commission and said the commission was “appreciative beyond words.”
The Earth Club members also read the official Arbor Day proclamation during the event.
Bartlett explained to the crowd that the recently removed black locust trees once stood in the front yard of John Lincklaen’s grand home on that spot, the front section of the current park, and the current stone wall and metal fence was Lincklaen’s front gate.
When Lincklaen’s Lakeland estate burned down in 1807, construction on his new home, Lorenzo, on the south end of the lake was accelerated.
“We will replant the trees here to signify the old entrance to Lakeland estate and the new future of Lakeland Park,” Bartlett said. “This will return a sense of entry to the park.”
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
