Arbor Day

Arbor Day 2012 will be recognized by Harford on Friday at 9 a.m. at the Harford Waste Disposal Center (Scarboro Landfill) at 3135 Scarboro Road in Street. The Arbor Day festivities will consist of tree plantings, displays, demonstrations, exhibits, refreshments and a free tree for all who attend. The goal is to plant 1,200 tree seedlings at the Scarboro Landfill site. The Arbor Day 2012 activities mark Harford County earning the Tree City USA award from the National Arbor Day Foundation for the ninth consecutive year.

Arbor Day 2012 will be recognized by Harford on Friday at 9 a.m. at the Harford Waste Disposal Center (Scarboro Landfill) at 3135 Scarboro Road in Street. The Arbor Day festivities will consist of tree plantings, displays, demonstrations, exhibits, refreshments and a free tree for all who attend. The goal is to plant 1,200 tree seedlings at the Scarboro Landfill site. The Arbor Day 2012 activities mark Harford County earning the Tree City USA award from the National Arbor Day Foundation for the ninth consecutive year.

Harford County Executive James M. Harkins will officiate at the county's first Arbor Day celebration at 9 a.m. Friday in Creswell Park. A ceremonial tree planting will be coupled with the ninth annual Harford County Stream Conservation Project sponsored by Maryland Trout Unlimited, Harford County government and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources' forest service. Volunteers are sought for the project, which involves installing tree shelters on seedlings along the park's tributary to Bynum Run. Information: DNR Forester Michael Huneke, 410-836-4579.

'Alice,' the musical A musical based on the "The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass' will be performed April 13-22 at the Children's Theatre of Annapolis, 1661 Bay Head Road. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, with 2 p.m. performances Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $15, $12 for children 12 and younger and adults 60 and older. Information: 410-757-2281 or childrenstheatreofannapolis.org. Summer nature camps Registration is now under way for Adkins Arboretum's summer nature camps in June and July.

Landmark trees, three towns and the late Earl Yingling will be given tributes at Carroll's annual Arbor Day ceremony tomorrow in Manchester.Jim Slater, Office of the Environment administrator, will present framed certificates to the owners of several trees that have been designated as landmarks because of their size, age or unique qualities.Among the recipients are Mr. and Mrs. Albert L. Hierstetter of Westminster, who have been recognized for a silver maple that features a crown with a 90-foot spread.

NOT ONE but two environmental observances occur at the end of this month. They couldn't be more different. Earth Day looks at the big picture. Born in the '60s and celebrated on Thursday, Earth Day is about saving the whales, removing dams from the rivers, preserving entire mountain ranges. In sum, it's about protecting nature from man's imprint.By contrast, Arbor Day promotes the Victorian creed that humans can improve upon the primeval world. Nebraska inaugurated the first Arbor Day in 1872: The state issued a proclamation urging settlers to cover the treeless prairies with saplings.

About 18 condemned trees along Main Street in Manchester got a two-day reprieve, thanks to Arbor Day.Mike Hall of Hall's Tree Experts, who has the contract to remove the trees, said he decided Tuesday to grant a brief stay of execution.Manchester played host to the countywide Arbor Day celebration yesterday."I didn't want a bunch of people [at the celebration] having a big riot with my guys," Mr. Hall said.The trees, along the west side of Main Street, were marked for removal because they were diseased or because their roots were destroying sidewalks or pavement.

Taneytown Elementary School students recently participated in the 1996 Arbor Day Poster Contest sponsored by the Carroll County Forestry Board and the Carroll County Commissioners.Each class submitted one poster that was judged on originality and educational value.Debbie Henze's second-grade class was the county runner-up. The class received a video titled "Chesapeake Bay."Other Taneytown Elementary winners received books, videos and cassette tapes.Winners were:First grade: Linda Eyler's class, first place; Mariann Hazel's class, second place; Nancy Groomes' class, third place.

Arbor Day is the day when towns across America plant trees to be enjoyed by generations to come. It will happen Monday in Manchester.Students from Manchester Elementary School will help plant a white oak, Manchester's official town tree, by the school marquee on York Street. With the Manchester Tree Commission and possibly Mayor Earl A. J. "Tim" Warehime Jr. in attendance, the oak will be planted at 2 p.m. on Monday. The rain date is April 13."In my day, Arbor Day was always handled by the school," recalls Manchester Councilwoman Charlotte Collett of the Manchester Tree Commission.

The Harper's Choice Community Association will sponsor a plant sale and Arbor Day fair, in conjunction with the village elections Saturday, in front of the Safeway store in the village center. Plants for sale will cost $3 to $13 (cash only). White pine seedlings will be given away. Demonstrations of seed-planting and paper-making are planned, and there will be an Arbor Day scavenger hunt. Brad Higbee, the "Balloon Man," will be on hand to make balloon creations, and community groups will share information on gardening, habitat protection and other topics.

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.

Fall isn't just for planting bulbs. It is also an ideal time of year for more ambitious garden projects, such as planting a mature tree that will shade the sliding glass door on your deck next summer. Or replacing those generic foundation plantings with shrubs that are not only lovely in spring and summer, but also offer food and shelter for winter's creatures.

The Harper's Choice Community Association will sponsor a plant sale and Arbor Day fair, in conjunction with the village elections Saturday, in front of the Safeway store in the village center. Plants for sale will cost $3 to $13 (cash only). White pine seedlings will be given away. Demonstrations of seed-planting and paper-making are planned, and there will be an Arbor Day scavenger hunt. Brad Higbee, the "Balloon Man," will be on hand to make balloon creations, and community groups will share information on gardening, habitat protection and other topics.

Jenna Hertzog dragged her high school friends from a slumber party to a planting party yesterday at a community conservation project near Harford County's municipal landfill in Street. Helping 200 other volunteers plant 900 seedlings along Deer Creek meant extra credit in biology for the 15-year-old Forest Hill girl and "a totally awesome experience giving back to nature and putting oxygen into the air," she said. If only she and her friends had dressed for the chilly March weather and the mud. With temperatures barely in the 40s, many volunteers wore wool-lined hiking shoes or sturdy rubber boots.

The Village of Lakeview will be hosting a kickoff Guardian Angels meeting at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at its Neighborhood Network Center, 833 Fisherman Lane, Edgewood. Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa is expected to attend the meeting. Sliwa began the organization in the 1970s as a way to deter crime on the New York City subway. The Guardian Angels is a volunteer foot-patrol organization. High school reform presentation set Council member Richard C. Slutzky will make a presentation regarding high school reform at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Board of Education meeting at the Harford County Public Schools A. A. Roberty Building at 102 S. Hickory Ave., Bel Air. Slutzky said that he and County Council members have been receiving comments about the Comprehensive Secondary School Reform Plan from parents, students, teachers, guidance counselors and PTAs and wanted to present them to the Board of Education.

Does it seem as though your lilacs are opening earlier than they did in your childhood? Have you noticed the dogwood, wild columbine and Virginia bluebells blooming earlier? It's not your imagination. Though there are certainly seasonal fluctuations from year to year, as the recent cool spell can attest, studies are showing global warming is having an effect on our gardens. "Many plants are blooming weeks earlier than they used to," says David Inouye, professor of biology at the University of Maryland, College Park.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will give away spruce seedlings today, and children across Maryland will plant them and other tree species for the state observance of Arbor Day. The first Arbor Day was celebrated April 10, 1872, in Nebraska, where newspaper publisher J. Sterling Morton encouraged the public to plant trees to beautify and enrich the largely treeless state. Morton offered prizes for those who planted the most, and more than a million trees were put into the ground that day. Though National Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday in April, each state celebrates its day based on climate -- with Maryland's observance traditionally the first Wednesday in April.