On Thursday, Duluth Parks and Rec hosted an Arbor Day celebration at Washington Square Park. Most of the country celebrates Arbor Day in April, but Duluth’s weather makes the holiday more suited for fall.

“Arbor Day is traditionally celebrated in the spring. Arbor Day also originated in Nebraska, where they have decent spring weather,” said City of Duluth Forester Clark Christenson. “April is pretty hit and miss here, so we’ve just moved it to the middle of September. Just because the weather is better, you can actually plant trees, and you’re more likely to get people to come out and celebrate.”

The family-friendly event included learning more about trees in the area, making a pipe cleaner apple, and pop-up play activities. Kevin Taber has a six-month old daughter that he has been bringing to various pop-up play events in the area after coming across one accidentally.

“We just happened to be walking by a park and saw all the fun activities. And of course, her eyes lit up. She was all excited, squealing, flailing her arms around. So we had to stop. And then after that, we went on the website for Parks and Rec,” said Taber. “So then we started coming to the ones in the neighborhood.”

Duluth’s Arbor Day event also highlighted a city feature not everyone knows about: public orchards.

“Throughout the city of Duluth, we have 16 locations where there are planted apple trees that are there with purpose. We are promoting that the apples are there for you to pick and eat and enjoy and use for canning or anything else you might like them for,” said Recreation Specialist Megan Lidd. “Part of the planting of the public orchard system is just encouraging people to utilize their environment and beautify our spaces.”

Within the 16 locations, there are 12 varieties of apples and one cherry orchard. Each one currently has signs with guidelines on them, such as not eating any apples that have already fallen on the ground.

“Any of our trees in our park spaces, you can certainly pick from. This time of year, when all the apples are ripe and falling, all of the areas that are designated public orchards do have signs on them currently that label them as this is a public orchard. Please come take the apples and use them,” said Lidd.

A map of the public orchards, maintained by Edible Duluth, can be found at this link.