One hundred and seventy-five kids, six happy old guys on tractors, and three dozen parent-volunteers planted over 900 tree seedlings during the 21st Annual Josephine County Tree Plant on Friday, February 5th. CPE’s 4th and 5th grade classes arrived on the scene at the end of Elk Road at 9:30 a.m. and were promptly treated to a outdoor logging exhibit featuring old time gear. Everyone was then loaded aboard the tractor rigs and hauled up the hillside to the staging area. There they learned how to properly plant the trees. Jo County’s success rate is substantially greater than traditional operations largely because kids like ours tend to care enough about the trees to plant them correctly. The classes then hiked to our school’s area on the hillside, where each student carefully planted five or so Ponderosa and Doug Fir trees. Each student also identified one tree with a dog tag engraved with their name so that they can return in the years to come and attempt to find their individual tree. It won’t be easy, however. Over it’s 21 year history, kids have planted something in the neighborhood of 100,000 trees! Special thanks to Ross Roe (the volunteer organizer of the event), Diana Smith, and the rest of the Jo County Forestry team! This field tip, by the way, was a continuing spin-off from last year’s Billy Bob Thornton brouhaha.