Skip to content

ALASKA ARBOR DAY EVENTS CALENDAR 2024

SOUTHCENTRAL

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson

Monday, May 20
10:30, Aurora Elementary School, JBER-E. Colonel Oldham presiding with the participation of Aurora Elementary students. The students will be planting two paper birch trees (not open to the public). Contact Cayley Elsik, JBER Biologist, for more information (907) 384-3212 or cayley.elsik@us.af.mil

Friday, May 31
15:00, Soldier Centered Medical Home, JBER-R. Colonel Watts presiding with the participation of Girl Scout Troop 20051 and Boy Scout Troop 190 (not open to the public). The scouts will plant two white spruce trees. Contact Cayley Elsik, JBER Biologist, for more information (907) 384-3212 or cayley.elsik@us.af.mil

Anchorage

Monday, May 20
11:00, The official Municipality of Anchorage Arbor Day event will be at Town Square Park in downtown Anchorage. Parks and Recreation crews will remove an invasive European Bird Cherry tree and plant two crabapples and a birch tree.

May (date TBD)
The Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage (NSAA) is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2024. Volunteers will be planting white spruce seedlings in May to honor deceased members of families that made notable contributions to nordic skiing in Anchorage since the NSAA’s founding in 1964. The seedlings will be planted at Kincaid Park to create windbreaks and to shade sunny sections of the ski trails. Seedlings are being donated by the Alaska Community Forestry Program.

June (date TBD)
The University of Alaska Anchorage will be planting several orchard trees as part of their annual requirements for the Arbor Day Foundation’s (ADF) Tree Campus Higher Education recognition program. UAA has been an ADF Tree Campus Higher Education for fifteen years.

Palmer

Wednesday, May 15
Thursday, May 16
Friday, May 17
Students at Palmer High School are doing a series of tree plantings on the high school grounds. The trees are being provided through a grant from the Alaska Community Forest Council and a donation from the Alaska Community Forestry Program

Tuesday, May 21
Matanuska Electric Association staff will prune and conduct general maintenance at the Babb Arboretum, 536 E. Cooper Loop, and the Rehor Arboretum, 163 E. Industrial Way, Palmer.

Wasilla

Monday, May 20
11:00, City of Wasilla staff will plant three mountain ash trees behind the tennis courts at Iditapark.

INTERIOR

Golden Valley Electric Association
Since 1991, GVEA has given away 94,250 trees or shrubs to members to celebrate Arbor Day. This will be GVEA’s 33rd Annual Tree Giveaway!
This year, members will be able to choose an American Black Currant, a Siberian Crabapple, or a White Lilac. The tree giveaway will take place on Saturday May 18th, 09:00 – 12:00 (or until trees are gone).
Locations are:

  • Delta: GVEA Delta office parking lot, 1681 Richardson Highway
  • Fairbanks: GVEA Fairbanks campus parking lot, 758 Illinois Street
  • Nenana: Coghill’s General Store, 807 A Street, Nenana
  • Healy: Denali Chamber of Commerce, Mile .4 Healy Spur Road

Fairbanks

The Fairbanks Arbor Day Committee is hosting planting events at 5 local schools, and Fairbanks City Hall.

Monday, May 13
Boreal Sun Charter School classes planted two trees provided by the Fairbanks North Star Borough in Bernice Aldridge Park.

Tuesday, May 14
Students at Immaculate Conception School class planted a spruce tree at the Juanita Helms Administration Center of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Wednesday, May 15
Hunter Elementary and North Pole Elementary planted apples trees.

Thursday, May 16
Pearl Creek Elementary will plant haskap berry bushes.

Monday, May 20
12:00, Fairbanks City Hall
Unique tree rescue! The twelve story Polaris Building in downtown Fairbanks was built in the 1950s and is slated for demolition this spring. It was unoccupied for over twenty years, and trees have begun to take root on the roof. Fairbanks Arbor Day Committee members climbed eleven flights of stairs to rescue several birch and poplar trees. One of the rescue trees will be replanted in front of City Hall as a memento to the historic building. The planting will be done by home school children with the support of city dignitaries.

13:30, Spruce Tree Montessori School
Students will plant two spruce trees on the school grounds.

Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Monday, May 20
Staff will be planting two memorial trees at the Fairbanks DNR offices.

Fort Wainwright
Wednesday, May 29
11:00 – 14:00 A community seedling give-a-way will take place at the Fort Wainwright Environmental Building.

INSIDE PASSAGE

Ketchikan

Monday, May 20
13:00 City Park, Ketchikan Gateway Borough Public Works staff and the Society of American Foresters, Dixon Entrance Chapter, will be planting a tree. Borough Mayor Rodney Dial will preside and deliver an Arbor Day proclamation.

Juneau

Friday, May 17
13:00 Evergreen Cemetery
City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ) Parks and Recreation staff and students at Montessori Borealis Public School will plant a Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine) and an Acer capillipes (snake-bark maple).

Sunday, May 19
11:00 Jensen-Olsen Arboretum
In celebration of Alaska Native Plant month and Alaska Arbor Day, there will be a native plant walk at the Jensen-Olson Arboretum. Meet in the parking lot to walk down the entry path and learn about the Tongass National Forest basics. Then we will go to the arboretum’s cultivated native plant garden beds.

Monday, May 20
12:00 Evergreen Cemetery
CBJ staff and Harborview Elementary School students will plant a Larix sibirica (Siberian larch) and a Picea glauca (white spruce). An Arbor Day Proclamation will be read.

Metlakatla

Monday, May 20
Metlakatla Indian Community staff will discuss the history of Arbor Day and host a tree planting with students at the Frank Hayward Memorial Breakwater.