This year marks the 150th anniversary of Arbor Day, an annual celebration of trees and those who plant them. To honor the occasion and give a boost to Loveland’s urban forest, the city is holding tree planting events on Saturday and Monday.

“Council declared Monday as Arbor Day in Loveland, so we’ll be planting a ceremonial tree on Third Street,” Loveland Urban Forester Jeff Caputo said. “On Saturday morning, we are replacing trees that we’ve lost over the last couple of years in the southern orchards of Mehaffey Park.”

The city is adding 20 new Montmorency cherry trees, which were donated by Platte River Power Authority. Volunteers from the Mehaffey’s disc golf team and the Colorado State University logging team will do the digging and heavy lifting.

Mehaffey Park is also the site of Saturday’s Run for the Trees, a two-mile fun run to benefit the Parks and Recreation foundation’s tree fund, which supports the city’s memorial tree and bench donation program and planting events.

Monday’s planting ceremony gets underway at 11 a.m. at 442 East Third St., with representatives from the city’s water and power, parks and recreation, and public works departments, among others. The group will be planting a Shumard oak, which is known for its “great urban adaptability,” according to the Arbor Day Foundation’s tree guide.

Monday’s event will also celebrate Loveland’s 33rd consecutive year as a “Tree City,” a program established by the Arbor Day Foundation to recognize communities that have a strong commitment to “growing their urban canopy.”

According to Caputo, it’s a commitment that is getting stronger. This year, the city of Loveland has started developing a formal urban forestry division, which he said “has been needed for a long time.”

The program is still taking shape, but involves partners from different city departments, including parks and public works, “working on a unified forestry goal,” he continued.

“Our goals are to improve our maintenance standards for city-owned trees, with an emphasis on public safety. Then, obviously, we’re trying to move towards a future where we’re planting more diverse and hardy trees for our public areas. And time-wise, one of the bigger goals of the program is to be a community resource so that people can reach out and get information they need about trees.”

Monday’s planting downtown, Caputo said, is one example of the program’s future direction.

“Typically, we do the planting in a park location. This year, we’re going into a right-of-way location to prioritize our future emphasis on trying to replace some of our street trees around town.”

According to Caputo, more community planting events are planned for the fall, and street trees will be replaced “where we can.” The program also hopes to begin outreach later this year to local homeowners associations and other civic organizations to start replacing trees in other areas.