In the spring, a young girl's fancy turns to - well, helping preserve the environment.
That was the case for 9-year-old Bethany Ingram, anyway, as she took a break Friday from her task of digging a hole in a bit of soggy turf in Edgeley Grove Park in Fallston.
The fourth-grader, nature enthusiast and member of Girl Scout Troop 883 in Bel Air was getting ready to plant the 2-foot seedling of a red maple tree, one of about 1,000 trees put in the ground by volunteers on an unexpectedly sunny morning as part of Harford County's seventh annual Arbor Day Celebration and Conservation Project.
"We have to take care of the environment," said Bethany, a pink baseball cap shoved back on her head. "We want it to be around for a long, long time."
That was the goal of the more than 300 people who gathered at the bottom of a hillside in the rolling, 280-acre Harford County park. Led by representatives from county government and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the volunteer horde - Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, honor students, at-risk teens, Cub Scouts, parents, siblings, teachers and more - planted 900 seedlings 12 feet apart, in two parallel lines, along Winters Run creek and an intersecting tributary.
Those were in addition to about 100 more mature trees the county had planted along the nearby Ma and Pa Trail.
"It's a lot to get done in less than three hours," said Frann Geraghty, a volunteer taking part for the third straight year.
Most of the trees will create a buffer between the hillside and the creek, said Betsey Greene, a forestry expert with Harford County Public Works who helped organize the event. That is necessary because the hillside is part of an active farm that is part of the park.
Each spring when the farmer plants, and every fall when he harvests, sediment threatens to slide down the hill toward the water, Greene said, a situation that would eventually overwhelm the creek and swallow it up.
"The tree roots will spread to 25 feet in circumference," she said, "and that will suck down water, using up the moisture before it runs down the hill. It will preserve the integrity of this setting."
As leaders and volunteers explained, that is one of the many benefits of trees. They add beauty, cool the air and the land, provide leafy shade and create food and habitat for animals. They also create oxygen, said Geraghty, a kindergarten teacher at Forest Hill Elementary School.
