Salem To Plant Trees At Witchcraft School As Part Of Earth Day Week

SALEM, MA — Earth Week activities celebrating Earth Day in Salem include two school events and the planting of 10 new shade trees at Witchcraft Heights Elementary School on Friday.

The programs are designed to teach students about the benefits of trees and how to care for them. Students at both the Early Childhood Center and Witchcraft Heights Elementary School will be given seedlings donated by the Salem Department of Public Services as well as information on how to take them home and plant them in the ground or in pots.

There will also be a classroom coloring activity that teaches them how to care for their trees.

Mayor Dominick Pangallo, Superintendent Steve Zrike and City Arborist Conor Morgan will meet with students for the activities on Wednesday.

Department of Conservation and Recreation Forester David Bresnahan, Zrike and Morgan will then join students on National Arbor Day on Friday for the planting of 10 shade trees near Witchcraft Heights.

"We are proud of our commitment to greening Salem with the planting of trees," Pangallo said. "It is so important to teach students the many ways trees help our environment. Trees improve our air quality by capturing pollutants, slowing down climate change by storing carbon emissions, providing shade which keeps the city cooler, and much more."

Salem has been recognized as a Tree City USA since 2001. National Arbor Day is celebrated in more than 3,400 communities across the country.

Salem residents who want to learn about the benefits of trees, how to plant and care for trees the right way, request street trees from the city for their neighborhood, or even request free trees for their yard from the Greening the Gateway Cities Program (DCR), can find all of this information, and more, on the Tree Commission webpage.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)