FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Arbor Committee spent Saturday planting trees in the Carrington Pointe subdivision and in Southwood Park.

The committee planted 17 trees in the subdivision on the west edge of town, and eight in the little park near Dogwood Drive on the south side of town. Committee member Steve Taylor said the trees were paid for through a $5,000 grant from Trees Forever, a project of Alliant Energy.

Taylor said the city conducts an inventory of the trees on public property every 10 years, and he and fellow Arbor Committee member Bob Koczela completed the most recent inventory in the fall of 2023. They discovered that the emerald ash borer had wreaked havoc on the city’s ash trees, just as it has in other states and now most of Iowa. On city property alone, Fairfield lost 325 ash trees in 10 years.

Taylor said the Arbor Committee will plant 50 trees this year, half of them last Saturday and the other half in October. He said that, of the 25 trees planted April 13, most of them went to Carrington Pointe subdivision because that was particularly hard hit by the ash borer, which killed 70 trees in the subdivision.

The grant from Trees Forever covers the cost of the trees plus wire cages and posts, but the labor is donated by Arbor Committee members and volunteers. On Saturday, six volunteers showed up to get their hands dirty digging holes, hauling mulch and planting trees. Taylor said he appreciated the City of Fairfield and Jefferson County pitching in to provide posts, too.