Nine new trees in freshly dug pits, with help from the City of Newburgh Department of Public Works, will now call Upper Broadway their new home. Members of the Conservation Advisory Council, Outdoor Promise and Greater Newburgh Parks Conservancy joined friends and neighbors to plant the new trees on Arbor Day on Friday, April 28.

The New York State Department of Conservation [NYSDEC] website defines Arbor Day as a nationally observed day that promotes and encourages tree planting across the country and celebrates all the trees in each person’s life. It was first celebrated in the year 1872, and today it is celebrated in New York on the last Friday in April. “I think Arbor Day is important because a tree is not just a tree. It provides life and we need them to survive. The air we breathe, which we rely on to stay alive, comes from trees,” said Ronald Zorrilla, CEO of Outdoor Promise. “It’s important to acknowledge how important they are for us, especially in urban environments, where more and more of them are coming down. There’s more empty tree pits in the City of Newburgh than there are trees planted. So we’re excited to change that and add more trees to our city.”

Over the course of the next several hours, DPW workmen prepared the pits to be filled with dirt and helped settle and stabilize the trees. “To see this all come to fruition it’s very exciting when you see that tree finally go in the ground, after all the work that it takes. Arbor Day, like so many things, it’s a unifier. So it brings us all together under a common goal that we all want to beautify our city,” said Marianne Marichal. “We have lost so many trees here in Newburgh, New York, we’ve lost approximately 4000 trees over the years, we’re trying to restore that tree canopy. When we’re restoring and growing our tree canopy, it requires that many more tree stewards come together to help make this happen.” According to Marichal, this would be the 18th consecutive year that the city would be named as a Tree City USA and thanked the community for their continued support in this effort too.

During the course of the morning and afternoon, Commodore Chocolatier provided coffee and small treats for those in attendance. The sweet shop is now one of several businesses that will have a new tree in front of their shop that, once fully grown, people can enjoy and take in as they come in to shop.

Gus Courtsunis was pleased to see trees making their way in front his family’s store. As a child, Courtsunis recalled climbing crab apple trees while visiting his grandmother’s house, and so even as a child he had an appreciation for the environment and the trees. Now with trees coming in front of the shop, Courtsunis shared that the business would like to add benches, garbage cans to keep the sidewalk clean and bike racks for riders. “We are absolutely excited. We have been looking forward to this day where we get trees planted in front of our shop. And we are very optimistic for all of the beauty this is going to add to this stretch of Broadway,” said Courtsunis. It’s wonderful to be able to experience this in front of our own store here. I would encourage any readers or listeners to expose themselves to as much greenery as possible in their communities.”