Local volunteers will celebrate Arbor Day by planting 99 trees in Pecan Acres Park at 9 a.m. Friday, November 6, with help from a number of supporting organizations.  As a Tree City USA designee, Nacogdoches holds annual Arbor Day events that include tree plantings. This years' event brings together many organizations that care about Nacogdoches and the beauty of our community. Local residents are invited to participate, and volunteers can enter the park via Logansport Street and park on the south side of Pecan Acres.

The project is a joint venture between SFA Gardens and the Nacogdoches Parks and Recreation Department. The Garden Capital of Texas Committee will also participate in the event, and Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful will be providing mulch, shovels, gloves and water for all volunteers. The Texas A&M Forest Service will be on hand to instruct volunteers on the proper technique for tree planting, and local elementary schools will use the event to teach students how to plant trees. Lowe's Garden Center Manager Robert Northam has also joined the effort and donated 50 bags of mulch for the project.

Pecan Acres Park has lost many trees over the last century, and the city has been working with a 1939 aerial photo of the area to map out a reforesting plan. "When we looked at the oldest overlay of Pecan Acres Park, we realized we needed to plant a large number of trees to bring it back to its former beauty," Brian Bray, Director of Community Services, said. "The Parks/Recreation/Cemetery Departments have been working in the park to stake the locations for the new trees and get the sites ready for planting. It will be a pretty impressive planting effort. These trees will help keep the park the beautiful space that it is and a great place that area families can enjoy the shade for years to come."

Volunteers will be planting a range of different pecan varieties available in the South, Dawn Stover, SFA Gardens research associate, said "SFA Gardens received scion wood of 15 different pecan varieties from both the Texas A&M and USDA-ARS pecan research stations," Stover said. "Sam Pollard of Texas Pecan Nursery then grafted and grew the trees, and generously donated them for our project."

This Arbor Day celebration will top last year's tree planting event, during which SFA Gardens, the Nacogdoches Parks and Recreation Department, KNB and The Garden Capital Committee planted 90 fringe trees in Banita Creek Park off Pearl Street.

The Texas Legislature officially designated Nacogdoches as the Garden Capital of Texas in 2013. The Nacogdoches Garden Capital of Texas committee is a subcommittee of Keep Nacogdoches Beautiful and is made up of local volunteers dedicated to educating, engaging and inspiring Nacogdoches citizens to become involved in beautifying their green spaces.

To learn more about the Garden Capital Committee, please call Buzz Dutton at 936-560-5624, or visit their facebook page, facebook.com/gardencapital