SAINT PAUL, MN –Tonight, Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South Saint Paul) and Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL-Hibbing) led a bipartisan group of legislators to purchase and hand out trees to the Minnesota House of Representatives. This yearly House tradition has been celebrated around each Arbor Day with members distributing trees.
“Arbor Day is a day where we come together as Minnesotans to celebrate nature and to help our outdoors by planting a tree,” said Rep. Hansen. “As legislators, we should look at the long term dividends of how a tree benefits future generations, just as the legislation we consider here should.”
This year more than 200 White Spruce from the Schumacher Nursery and Berry Farm in Heron Lake were distributed. The White Spruce is important commercially as the mainstay of the pulp and paper industry, as well as for construction lumber. In landscape, it is a lovely specimen tree or when grouped makes a sturdy option for windbreaks and buffer strips, and serves as a great visual screen.
“In northern Minnesota, dozens of varieties of trees cover our landscape, and forestry is woven into our fabric,” Rep. Sandstede said. “I’m pleased that today, we are able to recognize on a bipartisan basis how lucky we are to have this abundance of trees in our state, and raise awareness of about how important they are to our environment, to our rich tradition of tourism, and to many industries which give us a top performing economy.”
The group who sponsored the trees discussed the history of Arbor Day, how to plant a tree, about the importance of the White Spruce to Minnesota, and about the Minnesota Nursery from which the trees came. In addition to Reps. Hansen and Sandstede, Republican Reps. Fabian (R-Roseau) and Loon (R-Eden Prairie) were included in the bipartisan group of Arbor Day legislators.
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