Earlier this week, Greene County eighth graders learned about trees and helped plant 34 trees in Jefferson.

Wednesday, the students heard from representatives with the Jefferson Tree Committee, Alliant Energy and Trees Forever about the benefits of trees and the program from Alliant Energy called “Branching Out.” The Greene County Middle School received a $2,500 grant through Alliant Energy and Trees Forever to plant the trees. Students planted four trees on the middle school grounds on Wednesday and then planted another 30 trees along Madison Street on Friday. Middle School Principal Shawn Zanders talked about continuing the partnership with the Branching Out program and how that impacts the students.

“I think the ultimate contribution here is that it’s an act of kindness. By planting a tree it’s for the future. We don’t always get to reap the benefits of the tree, but right now these mature trees that we have in our school, were planted years and years ago. So we want to continue that tradition so that others that go later in our life get those same benefits.”

The City of Jefferson has been involved in the program since 1991 and they received over $91,000 in grants and planted over 4,500 trees.