COEUR d’ALENE – Dig a hole, get your hands dirty and have fun in the soil. Those were some of the goals for the students during the city's Arbor Day celebration Friday at Atlas Waterfront Park.

Students from Ramsey Magnet School of Science learned about planting trees and how they better sustain the environment for future generations. 

The city of Coeur d’Alene has received the Tree City USA Award for 40 years by not only making trees a major part of the skyline, but also prioritizing planting and maintaining tree populations. 

“Thank you, guys,” urban forester Nick Goodwin said to the students surrounding the site of the trees' new home. “You have added trees to this park that will grow here for hopefully hundreds of years.”

The students worked at planting individual trees around the perimeter of the park before coming together to learn tree facts, such as the difference between a bristlecone pine and a tamarack. They also helped replant a big conifer.

“We’re trying to teach them the benefits, and we’re also teaching them how to plant a tree properly. Some of it’s just actual scientific information about trees and how they grow, and maybe a little work ethic,” Goodwin said.

Lane Churchill took the lesson to heart and knew a lot about how trees give back to the environment.

“They take in carbon dioxide, give us oxygen,” Lane said. “If we had no trees, we would have too much carbon dioxide and it would become so much we couldn’t breathe the air.”

    Students from Ramsey Magnet School and Coeur d’Alene Park Department staff gather after helping replant a tree transplant at Atlas Waterfront Park in a celebration of Arbor Day. The city was presented the Tree City USA Award for the 40th year.
  

    Emmy Woods, Ruby Baker and Lane Churchill "dance down the dirt" around a newly planted tree at Atlas Waterfront Park.