The Perry Parks and Recreation Department has been busy so far this fall, and they’re putting their newest piece of equipment to good use in the process.

Parks and Rec Director John Anderson says over the last couple weeks the parks staff has been taking trees from the City’s nursery and planting them around town. Anderson says they began this process three years ago in preparation for the scourge of Emerald Ash Borer, and the newly matured trees were ready to take the place of ash trees in public areas around Perry. There have been around 20 new trees planted at the soccer complex and 14 at the dog park, and the job was made easier with the help of a newly purchased tree spade. Anderson points out that the cost savings of growing their own trees with the aid of grant funds has more than paid for the new equipment to plant them.

He also emphasizes that this type of program is not often found in a City of Perry’s size. “So most communities that have the ability to have a nursery, they typically have a forestry department in their town. Those communities have the resources to manage their urban canopy, or their park canopy. We, at a town of 8,000, are lucky and we’re fortunate enough that we have a Park Board that’s backing us, and a City Council that’s backing us, and pushing us, and promoting us, and helping us through budget season through equipment. So hat’s off to them, and we appreciate it.”

Anderson says the parks department will be planting around 20-30 more trees around town during the remainder of the fall season, and then they’ll look into restocking the nursery. He adds, they’ve already started to consider some different species of trees with their next batch, so the City could have a varied and unique canopy in the coming years. To learn more about Perry Parks and Rec projects, click the link below to listen to the Perry Fareway Let’s Talk Dallas County program with Anderson.

https://www.raccoonvalleyradio.com/2019/10/07/lets-talk-dallas-county-10-7-2019-john-anderson/