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Arbor Day celebration is this Thursday

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Fourth graders in Mrs. Reynold’s class wrote “Here Come the Beetles: Asian Invasion” about the emerald ash borer.

FARMINGTON – An event on Thursday will honor Farmington’s longstanding history as a TreeCity USA town with an evening of presentations and discussion.

Monday marks the official start to the annual Arbor Week- a celebration particularly notable for the twenty towns of Maine who are certified TreeCity USA towns. Farmington, Kennebunkport and Westbrook come in tied with 42 years of being recognized.

“The other towns have full-time arborists, so it’s quite an accomplishment for Farmington,” American Forest Management Inc. Forester Bill Haslam said.

Thursday’s event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. at the North Church, will focus on invasive insects and plants of the area, and how to handle them. Representatives from Somerset County Soil and Water Conservation District and Maine Forest Service will be giving presentations, and a group of students from Regional School Unit 9 will be talking about a project they worked on about the emerald ash borer. The students researched the insect and wrote a book four years ago as fourth graders in Cascade Brook School’s Mrs. Reynold’s class. The book, entitled “Here Come the Beetles: Asian Invasion” is available on Amazon and will be available at the event.

“For fourth graders it’s quite in depth. I could not believe they could tell the difference between a brown ash and a white ash,” Haslam said.

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