This year’s annual Arbor Day celebration will be held at the Perkins Arboretum at 10 a.m. Friday, April 27, sponsored by the Moorestown Garden Club, the Moorestown Improvement Association, Moorestown Township, the Tree Planting and Preservation Committee and Public Works. The second grade classes of Baker School will perform. Tree seedlings will be distributed. 

This year a 6-foot, White Pine Space Shuttle tree will be planted at the Arboretum. The tree was won by the Tree Committee at last fall’s Annual Shade Tree Federation convention from the New Jersey Forestry Service and will be delivered to the Township this spring in time for planting on Arbor Day.   

Why is it called a Space Shuttle Tree? In 1997, astronaut Gregory Linteris, a New Jersey native, took the seeds with him on his voyage on the Space Shuttle Columbia. NASA gave them to the New Jersey Forestry Service. The seeds germinated in only seven days, about half the normal germination time. They grew only 35 trees, which were later dedicated to the memory of the seven crew members who perished in the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.   

So come out and join your neighbors on April 27 to celebrate Arbor Day, honor the Columbia crew members and promote tree planting to provide a healthy environment for us all.