Trees on Heritage Park Playground to be Carved Starting Next Week
Author:Patrick Plantenberg, Tree Board ChairTownsend Tree Board Chair, Townsend Rotary Club
Patrick Plantenberg
Tree Board Chair
Two years ago, the Townsend Tree Board received a US Forest Service and MT Department of Natural Resources and Conservation grant to help remove two large cottonwoods in the Heritage Park playground. They were left as 10-15-foot stumps to allow for carving them into characters. The Tree Board started reaching out to potential carvers to do the work.
The Tree Board also received an anonymous donation of $10,000 to do a special project in the city. In a thank-you letter back to the law firm representing the donor, the Tree Board stated the money would be used to plant new trees in McCarthy Park on South Harrison. This is the only park left that the Tree Board has not replanted in the last 20 years. In addition, the letter stated the two stumps would be carved into characters with the money.
The Tree Board contacted Townsend Schools and asked the elementary school teachers to bring the children to the park and send the Tree Board ideas for what the kids would like the trees carved into. Many great ideas were submitted by the children of Broadwater County, and two themes dominated, including carving them into a squirrel house and into the Townsend Bulldog.
