Earth Day 2021: Tree sales boom in Clinton County

LOCK HAVE, PA – COVID-19 apparently created a pent-up demand for trees. Earth Day 2021 was marked at Thursday’s Clinton County Commissioners’ meeting with word that the public quest for trees is booming.

Susan Peters from the county’s Conservation District office told the commissioners that 80 some order have been received by county residents totaling more than 1,400 trees. There was no tree sale last spring due to the pandemic, Peters said, and only 30 trees were purchased in 2019. She said her office is in the process of filling the orders and a few species remain. This year is the 43rd annual for the tree sale. She said additional information is available by calling her Porter Township office at 570-726-3798, extension 3800.

The commissioners’ Thursday meeting actions included a promotion for Peters to deputy manager of the county’s Conservation District, effective May 3, at a pay of $47,941. Conservation District manager Wade Jodun lauded the promotion, noting Peters’ better than two decades of service to the district and her “invaluable” role during the transition to a change in leadership upon the retirement of Mary Ann Bowers as manager.

Commissioner Angela Harding marked Earth Day by urging county residents to “plant a tree…pick up garbage.”

Harding repeated her periodic refrain about the continuing incidence of COVID-19 in Clinton County. Since April 8, she said, there have been 204 active cases in the county, all symptomatic. She noted there are ample opportunities to get vaccinated and urged county residents to consult with their physicians, family and friends and get inoculated. Harding said Clinton County is among the worst five counties in the state in terms of community transmission of the virus.