Children plant trees

Press, 16 June 1988, Page 6

Children plant trees

Children were warned to eat apples, not trees, at a tree-planting exercise on the Port Hills yesterday. About 200 children who gathered to plant the trees were told a story about a man in the United States who had eaten a birch tree.

The tree was 3m tall, 12cm wide, and took 89 hours to eat, said the Christchurch City Council’s deputy general manager of parks, Mr Rob Dally. He advised the children against trying it themselves, however, and suggested they ate instead the apples provided after the tree-planting. The children, who were from Christ-

church South Intermediate School, Cashmere Primary School, Phillipstown School and Woolston School, were given 700 native trees to plant in Elizabeth Park, alongside Victoria Park Road. The Summit Road Society has organised such plantings for the last 40 years, and the same schools help each year. The trees and the preparatory Work were supplied by the Christchurch City Council. Three people who were at the first planting in 1948 were present yesterday, including a Christchurch City councillor, Mrs Carole Evans, who was a pupil at Christchurch South Intermediate School.