Trees

WILLIAMSPORT -- Dozens of people streamed into the historic Springfield Barn Sunday evening in Williamsport for a new Christmas celebration that exceeded the expectations of organizers and spectators. Williamsport Town Council member Joan Knode came up with the idea of collecting unwanted artificial Christmas trees for a celebration. On Sunday night, dozens of those trees stood decorated on the floor of the barn for the town's first Charlie Brown Christmas. The only lights in the cavernous barn were those on the trees and strands of tiny white lights looped along beams inside the building.

Chesapeake Bay Trust grant money has been used to purchase 36 indigenous trees and shrubs, which are now planted in the courtyard at South Hagerstown High School as a School Yard Habitat Project. South High art teacher Fay Wastler set the application process in motion after attending a School Yard Habitat Project workshop last winter at Fairview Outdoor Education Center. The students in Terri Younker's certificate class wrote letters and drew pictures of native plants for the grant proposal that was submitted last spring.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com GREENCASTLE, Pa. - Greencastle will be a little less green this year when Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crews cut down four big trees on South Washington Street to make way for a repaving project in that section of the borough. W.B. "Bud" Marshall, chairman of the three-member Greencastle Shade Tree Commission, said the trunks of the trees, two maples and two sycamores, have grown into the street. The trees have to come down before PennDOT begins repaving the street, Marshall said.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Franklin County Enviropark will be getting a lot greener next week when the county plants 1,400 trees there as part of Earth Awareness Month. The county commissioners Thursday signed a proclamation marking April as Earth Awareness Month. They will present it later this month to Earth Day founder John McConnell, according to Melodie Anderson-Smith, the director of the Renfrew Institute in Waynesboro. The park is on about 5 acres along the Falling Spring between Franklin Farm Lane and Interstate 81 in Guilford Township, part of a 200-acre parcel that includes the county's human service agencies, nursing home, prison and other offices.

Do you get tons of catalogs in the mail? I used to. I mail-ordered a couple things for Christmas gifts last year. BIG mistake! I guess these people thought I must be a big spender or something and hoped I would order one of everything for the rest of my days. My name must have been sold to every mailing list known to mankind. I ended up getting at least three or four catalogs every week. One day, I'd had it. I figured the best way to put an end to this was to just sit down and call each and every catalog as they came in. I wanted to scream at these people, but I knew that wasn't the right tack to take.

marlob@herald-mail.com Eerily, thunder, lightning and a sudden downpour struck Sunday afternoon just as a Hagerstown fraternal organization was dedicating a tree at the Jonathan Hager House and Museum at City Park in memory of the victims and families of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. About two dozen members of the International Order of Odd Fellows Potomac Lodge 31 and Gilead Encampment 6 of Hagerstown, their families and visitors scurried for cover as the rains came. But the storm failed to dampen the enthusiasm and devotion of the organization, which also Sunday dedicated a dogwood tree and plaque to the late Robert W. Shumaker, past noble grand and chief patriarch of the Hagerstown Odd Fellows.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. - After a two-year absence, trees will soon return to a three-block stretch of South Washington Street from Baltimore Street to the VFW home. A fierce storm in the summer of 1996 knocked down more than a dozen stately trees on both sides of the street. Authorities attributed the destruction to wind shear. "The trees took power, cable and telephone lines down with them," said Nate Bacon, chairman of the Greencastle Tree Commission. The commission has secured a $1,600 matching grant from the Pennsylvania Urban Forestry Council, Bacon said.

Members of the Antietam Creek Watershed Alliance and American Legion Post 211 planted four large saplings along Antietam Creek at the post's picnic grounds in Funkstown April 19. The trees were donated by alliance member Donna Brightman in celebration of Earth Day and to thank the post for allowing the alliance to use the picnic grounds during the Antietam Creek Rubbish Round-Up last September. The trees will help stabilize and shade the stream bank and also provide shade and beauty to the area.

WAYNESBORO, Pa. -- Not legislation, not spending, not personnel matters, but two dozen trees have been what have most divided the Waynesboro Borough Council this year. The council reached an impasse several times at its Wednesday meeting when deciding whether to accept donated trees for the public Rotary Parking Lot behind West Main Street. Councilmen twice voted 3-3 on the number of trees to put on the lot and, with the mayor absent, had no one to break the tie. Charles "Chip" McCammon, Ronnie Martin and Ben Greenawalt pushed for six trees, which was actually two fewer than the council had approved July 16. Craig Newcomer, Jason Stains and C. Harold Mumma were in favor of 24 trees.

shappell@herald-mail.com BOONSBORO - In what may be a win-win situation for Greenbrier State Park and area residents wishing to stock up on firewood, park officials say people can cut up trees downed by recent storms and take the wood home for a price below market value. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources issued a news release Monday saying Greenbrier officials will sell permits to anyone interested in cutting up toppled trees for firewood. Mary Jo Bartles, an administrative officer at Greenbrier State Park, at 21843 National Pike east of Hagerstown, said Tropical Storm Isabel left dozens of trees in disrepair.