A growing education

Dozens of Corning school children went home and planted Blue Spruce and cedar tree seedlings Tuesday, which was Arbor Day across the nation.

"I'm going to take my tree home and plant it and take really good care of it so it will grow really big," said Kara Beckwith, third-grader in Ruth Jones Woodson Elementary School class.

Throughout this week children in all of the Corning Union Elementary School District schools will receive the tree seedlings as a gift from the Tehama County Arbor Day committee and donated by Sierra Pacific Industries.

Along with the trees the students receive an education in "Trees on the Move," by forester Frank Barron who shared his firsthand knowledge of the way trees are cut down and moved from the forest to the lumber mills.

"My favorite part was when Mr. Barron talked about how they log trees and move them with helicopters," said Woodson Elementary School third-grader Kayden Coleman.

On Tuesday Woodson students gave a lot of oohs and aahs when Barron explained a single tree being cut down and moved could weight 10,000 pounds and be 900 feet long.

Barron also told the students to remind their parents to always drive on the right side of the road when driving in the mountains on logging roads.

"You don't want to become a hood ornament on one of those big logging trucks because it is a lot bigger than your car and can't move out of the way very well," Barron said.

Between Monday and Mar. 31 students in 26 schools in the county will hear an Arbor Day presentation from a local professional forester and receive a conifer seedling.

Last year on Arbor Day the students learned about the many different uses of milled wood and received a seedling.

On Tuesday when Barron asked the Woodson School students if they had planted their seedlings from last year almost every hand went up and many volunteered that their little trees are still growing.