BATH — Thirty-eight live oaks found a new home in North Carolina’s oldest town this weekend.

Bath residents, volunteers from PotashCorp-Aurora, various professional tree service companies and others met to plant the live oaks around the town of Bath. The initiative was possible thanks to a $2,500 grant received from the North Carolina Urban Forest Council. The grant was part of the Council’s Legacy Tree Fund program, funded by member donations and contributions from private citizens, businesses and other organizations like PotashCorp, according to Leslie Moorman, executive director of the NCUFC.

“What we do is re-grant (funds) out to communities to help them plant trees because they don’t have resources within their town budgets, so we help them with it,” Moorman said. “We focus on proper tree care and the benefits for municipalities and citizens to kind of maintain their trees correctly to make sure we have a canopy within our urban areas, as we continue to grow.

The Greater Bath Foundation, applied for the grant on behalf of the town, said Jason Pair, president of the foundation. The Foundation works with the town and coordinate volunteers to help make projects possible for the town,

“You want to try and reinvest in the place you live,” Pair said. “The community came together to make a single initiative work. This isn’t just for my generation and the younger generation, it’s for the generations to come. One of the big things is teaching the kids how important this is. You’re planning for the future. This is more of an educational purpose to really show them how to do it and what it’s all about.”

In addition to planting the live oaks, many preexisting crepe myrtles were pruned, to help them flourish more ideally, Moorman said. Others on hand to plant and prune trees in Bath and help make the event possible included Bath Volunteer Fire Department, Wayne’s Tree Service, Landscaping Unlimited, Slade Landscaping, True Value of Bath, the Bath Town Council, Boy Scout Troop 258, Garden Classics and Worthington Farms of Greenville.

“I really think it’s a good idea to take care of the town because it’s such an old town, and it’s important to preserve it because it’s a very important piece of North Carolina history,” said John Jenner, a ninth-grade student and Troop 258 Boy Scout.

“I think it’s a good idea, personally, because I’ve pretty much known this town my entire memorable life, and it feels good to be able to preserve it,” said Rory Jenner, also of Troop 258 and a 12^th grader.

The NC Urban Forest Council is a statewide nonprofit, volunteer organization, made up of a membership of arborists, municipalities, tree companies and other private residents. It promotes the benefits of urban forest management and healthy community forests.

For more information about the NC Urban Forest Council, visit http://www.ncufc.org.