The Asplundh Tree Expert Co., in honor of National Arbor Day and the company’s 85th anniversary, sponsored a service project in conjunction with PECO Vegetation Management at Smith Memorial Playground in East Fairmount Park last month.
Two Asplundh climbing crews carefully removed two large, dead and dying trees from the Smith Playground while a team of 13 Asplundh and PECO employees did spring clean-up and planting work. In addition, two weeping cherry trees, donated by Lentzcaping, Inc. of Warrington, Pennsylvania, were planted to replace two that had succumbed to last summer’s drought and other stresses.
“We are really pleased to be able to eliminate potentially hazardous trees from this obviously popular playground and save some maintenance expenses for the Smith Playground and Playhouse organization,” said Asplundh President George Graham, Jr., who participated in the tree planting work. Meg Wise, Smith’s executive director (and coordinator of the work teams), expressed appreciation for Asplundh, PECO and Lentzcaping’s help in getting the playground spruced up and making it safer for visitors.
Alex Brown, manager, PECO Vegetation Management, took a break from hauling branches to say that “projects like this demonstrate the importance of proper tree maintenance and planting the right tree in the right place, whether it’s Arbor Day or not.”
