Your local Arbor Day Committee has announced an art contest to design a button for 2012 Arbor Day celebrations. Now in its 16th year, the contest is open to middle school and high school students who live within the Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, and Lakeland school districts. Winning art will be featured on a button that will be distributed, along with tree seedlings, at Arbor Day events in late April.

The winner of the contest will receive $75, a T-shirt featuring the winning artwork, and a supply of the Arbor Day buttons to give to family and friends. The second-place winner will be awarded $50; third place, $25. First-place artwork will be made into 2,000 buttons and given to fourth-graders and others who participate in Arbor Day celebrations this April. Designs must be submitted by Friday, March 2. The local Arbor Day committee will choose up to eight finalists. The selected art will then be judged by some real experts - a group of fourth-grade students.

Urban Forester Karen Haskew said that it seems like the natural thing to do to have the fourth-graders be the judges of the button art contest since most of the buttons will go to fourth-graders along with tree seedlings for Arbor Day. Over 42,000 seedlings have been given to fourth graders and other Arbor Day celebrants since the program was launched in the late 1980s.

"We do have some very talented young artists in the area," said Haskew. "We get good entries and I know the committee enjoys selecting the finalists - we can get pretty passionate about our favorites," she explained. There were as few as 20 entries when the button contest first started. In 2011 over 150 entries were received. In addition to the overall winners, the top winners at each participating school are also recognized.

Arbor Day is a tree-planting holiday celebrated both nationally and internationally. Idaho's official Arbor Day is the last Friday in April - April 27 in 2012. The Arbor Day Committee consists of representatives from federal, state, and city governments as well as several local service organizations. The Arbor Day seedlings and buttons that are distributed are purchased with donations from local forest products companies, nurseries, and tree services. For more information, contact Karen Haskew at 769-2266.

Info: Coeur d'Alene Parks Department, 710 E. Mullan Ave., the Post Falls Parks and Recreation Department, 408 Spokane Street, the Hayden Urban Forestry office, 8930 N. Government Way, and online at http:// www.cdaid.org/urban/index.html.