Steamboat Pilot & Today

The Hayden Recreation Board is asking help from community members in planting a variety of seedlings 9 a.m. Saturday in Dry Creek Park.

There will not be a signup, but several verbal commitments have been made, said Hayden Recreation Board Coordinator Lindsay Heer.

"Hopefully, people will be aware that it's Arbor Day and come out and help," Heer said. "(Plant-ing) should go fast, because they are just seedlings, and you can just pop your spade in the ground and be done quickly. Hopefully, it will be a gorgeous day."

The Recreation Board has ordered 290 trees from the Routt County Conservation District: 50 Nan King cherry trees, 50 serviceberry trees, 50 bur oak trees, 50 Colorado blue spruce trees, 30 aspens and 60 narrow-leaf cottonwood trees.

Each of the trees cost less than $1, and Hayden got to choose from more than 100 varieties.

The Routt County Conserva-tion District bought the trees from the Colorado Forest Service in Fort Collins, where the trees are grown, as part of a program that all conservation districts participate in, said Routt County Conservation Dis-trict Manager, Karen Pereira.

Between Octo-ber and mid-April, landowners who have at least 2 acres of land also can place orders. Pereira said the trees usually arrive in the first week of May, and this year's batch of 9,000 trees came Tuesday for properties all over the county.

The Hayden Recreation Board will receive 10 additional flowering trees as a gift from the National Audubon Society for the town's recently membership, Heer said.

The trees are more than an aesthetic improvement; they also will serve as a living snow fence, windbreak, wildlife habitat and erosion control.

"Traditionally, Arbor Day is at a different date in every state because of climate and such," Heer said. "Arbor Day is officially April 18 in Colorado, but since we still had snow on ground, the Recreation Board decided to make Arbor Day May 10 for Hayden."

Saturday's tree-planting event will take place rain or shine.

-- To reach Nick Foster call 871-4204 or e-mail nfoster@steamboatpilot.com