DOWAGIAC — Inside of the Dowagiac City Hall building Friday morning, holding in his hands a small, green tree, with tiny needles sticking out in every direction, Mayor Don Lyons made a proclamation.

“Whereas trees reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cut cooling costs, moderate temperature, clean the air, produce life-giving oxygen and provide habitat for wildlife, and whereas tree are a renewable resource that provides paper, fuel for our homes and woods for our fires and beautify our community and increase our property values … I hearby declare that the last Friday in the month of April is Arbor Day in the city of Dowagiac,” Lyons said. 

The proclamation was made as part of the city’s Arbor Day celebration, which the city has hosted for the last 11 years. Starting in Nebraska in 1872, Arbor Day is now an internationally celebrated holiday, during which individuals are encouraged to plant trees for both cosmetic and environmental reasons.

For Dowagiac’s 2018 celebration, city employees gave away Norway spruce saplings for residents to plant throughout Dowagiac.

“This has to do with maintaining our town and maintaining our urban forest,” Lyons said.

The primary reason that the city hosts the Arbor Day celebration is that it is required in order for the city to maintain its Tree City USA status, which is a national recognition for cities that meet certain criteria relating tree care and maintenance.

In order to be named a Tree City USA, a city must meet the Arbor Day Foundation’s four requirements: have a tree board or department, a tree care ordinance, an annual community forestry budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observance and proclamation.

“We were already doing so many of the things required for the designation and exceeding them, we decided to seek to become a tree city and this [celebration] is a part of that,” Lyons said. “So, for 11 years now, we have been holding this little, private celebration, and it has become something that we all enjoy.”

Lyons said that he has been a lover of trees since he was young, and even still keeps a high school report he did, where he identified 80 different types of trees within the city. It is because of this lifelong interest in trees that, as mayor, he encourages city residents to partake in Arbor Day and foster trees within the city.

“I think trees are beautiful and a great resource for the environment of our planet,” he said. “For those two reasons, I’m very supportive of this effort.”

City Administrative Assistant Sue Watson has been planning the Arbor Day festival in the city for the last 11 years. She said she believes the Arbor Day celebration is beneficial to the city of Dowagiac, adding that, by giving out saplings for people to plant, it shows that anyone can help preserve the environment of the city.

“I just like the idea of planting trees and get knowledge about trees out into the community,” she said. “Trees are important to the community.”