Bette Albright never wanted to be Kalispell’s “tree lady.” But it’s a hat she’s grown to wear around town, an inadvertent perk of getting involved.

“That’s what they say,” Albright said of the nickname.

“They say, ‘We know you, we saw you at the paper drive.’ Or, ‘You do the (Arbor Day) thing with the kids.’ So I am becoming the tree lady.”

Spending 25 years on the Kalispell Street Tree Commission can do that to a person. The volunteer commission advises city officials on all sorts of tree-related issues.

The commission formed in the late 1980s when Kalispell became a Tree City, an official designation that cities attain through the Arbor Day Foundation.

Albright — despite having no background whatsoever in trees — has been on the commission since day one. She was just the sort of person former Kalispell Mayor Ed Kennedy was looking for and they were neighbors at the time.

“He said, ‘Those are the kinds of people we want. We want people who aren’t bringing any hidden agendas.’ So I said OK, I’ll try it.”

Looking back after all this time, Albright’s willingness to volunteer makes some sense.

When she moved to Kalispell from Butte with her husband Herb in 1966 she marveled at the city’s tree-lined streets.

“Especially in the summer, with all those trees coming over the streets, you think, ‘Wow, this is a really nice part of the city.’ That’s how I was,” she said. “I loved the trees. Not that I knew anything about them, I just appreciated them.”

The role also fit Albright’s love for volunteering both as a way to help the community and a way to broaden her own horizons.

“Sometimes we think we can’t volunteer because we don’t know anything. But mine was a classic example of saying I don’t know anything but I’ll come and try,” she said.

Albright is no stranger to volunteering. And it’s something she thinks everyone should consider doing.

“Volunteers are always needed. Whether it’s mailing newsletters at church or being on boards. There’s always a need for volunteers,” she said.

Volunteering helps get things done. But they also get a chance to meet new people and learn more about the world around them, Albright said.

After teaching for 25 years in Evergreen schools, Albright ran for the Kalispell School District 5 Board of Trustees. She was confident she had all the answers from a seasoned teacher’s point of view.

Then she was elected to the board, and quickly learned she had a lot to learn.

“It’s one thing to be a teacher, but it’s another to worry about finances and insurance and investments and things like that. It was an all-again different ball game,” she said.

Albright also volunteered to help launch a Court Appointed Special Advocates program for neglected and abused children in court in Flathead County, having read about the program and its success in other Montana cities. As someone who had never even gotten a parking or traffic ticket to drag her into court, it helped her learn about the legal system as well as bring a valuable program to the area.

The same goes for the street tree commission. Albright has met all sorts of people who know more about trees than she ever will — people with the Forest Service, Plum Creek Timber Company and Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

Over the years the street tree commission started a semi-annual Trees to Paper to Trees recycling drive that continues to raise money to plant new trees and divert hundreds of thousands of pounds of garbage away from the county landfill. It also started the city’s annual Arbor Day celebrations, which continue to teach elementary school students about the importance of trees and get them to plant trees at local schools.

And through that involvement, Albright knows a lot more about trees than she did 25 years ago.

“I think what happens is it changes you,” Albright said about volunteering.

When Albright was a teacher and on the school board she’d see kids doing great things and wonder if maybe she played some small part in their accomplishments.

The same now goes for Kalispell’s trees, which take a little longer to grow up.

“I drive down the streets and I look at those trees and I think maybe I’m a small part of it,” she said. “I like those trees so much and they’re such a part of Kalispell. Maybe by me being on the tree board I’ve helped a little bit.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.