California's Arbor Day is celebrated March 7-14. Here are some Santa Margarita snapshots to show you how we've celebrated the importance of trees in our community:

Students at Santa Margarita Elementary School celebrated Arbor Day at the Demonstration Forest (DF) on April 6 and 7. Activities included tree plantings (incense cedar shown here and also a ‘Prairifire’ crabapple), student-led tours of the DF, and a visit by Treechie, the teaching tree. Some classrooms decorated their adopted study trees and created an especially beautiful sight for visitors. Activities were coordinated by Karen Starke, SMCF board member, and sponsored by the California ReLeaf 2000 Capacity-Building Grant Program and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Students at Santa Margarita School participated in student-led tours of the Demonstration Forest on April 5 and 6,2001 to celebrate Arbor Day (~halfway between California's Arbor Day and National Arbor Day). Upper grade classes each adopted a tree in the DF and then spent time researching their tree in preparation for taking a younger "buddy" class (K-2) on a special tour of the DF.

Here are two of the ten Santa Margarita School classes that participated in special tree studies and tours of the Demonstration Forest in March 1999. Upper grade (3-6) students adopted a tree to study and then shared their tree's special story with a younger buddy (K-2) class on the tour. Bronwyn Rafferty’s class went a step further and decorated their tree, the Chinese pistache, with brightly colored paper dragons! Beautiful! We hope to continue this tradition in March 2000.

SMCF volunteers gathered at the Demonstration Forest to celebrate Arbor Day in March 1998. We planted a ‘Marina’ Madrone, enjoyed songs, crafts, food and friendship in the forest!