LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club recently honored Member Jim Harvey with the highest honor presented by the club – a Penny Pines Certificate.

The Penny Pines Reforestation Program, which issues the certificates, was started in 1940 by the California National Forest Service to help raise funds to replant forests devastated by fires or other natural disasters.

According to CLT&TGC Penny Pines Chairman Ann Blue, who has served in this role for more than seven years, a certificate can be purchased by anyone for $65 through the LCT&TCG, then federal funds are added to this donation and a one acre Mendocino National Forest “plantation” will be planted with up to 350 seedlings in the honoree’s name.

The plantation will be marked with a Forest Service sign that names the honored individual or group. Sixteen National Forests in California participate in the Penny Pines Program, accepting donations from local garden clubs.

The CLT&TGC collects donations at every meeting which are used throughout the year to purchase Penny Pines certificates in a deserving member’s name.

During the October meeting, Lakeport resident and member Jim Harvey was presented with a certificate to honor his commitment to our local forests and to honor his recent retirement after a 45-year career with the Forest Service as a silvaculturalist, or tree specialist.

Harvey, who during the course of his career oversaw the planting of more than seven million trees, also gave a lively presentation with some interesting information, including the fact that when the Penny Pines Program was started in 1940, each seedling cost a penny each, and now that cost is anywhere from 80 cents to around $4 each.

He also mentioned that a good tree seedling planter can correctly plant 2,000 trees per day, or one about every 14 seconds; in fact, any contracted employee who cannot plant at least 1,000 per day – or one every 30 seconds – would be fired.

These certificates make an unusually unique and meaningful gift; any group or individual can purchase a “plantation” in someone’s name.

For more information about how to do this, contact new CLT&TGC Penny Pines Chair Joyce Porterfield at 707-279-8646.

The CLT&TGC meets at noon the third Tuesday of every month – except July and August – at the Scott’s Valley Clubhouse, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport. Anyone interested in gardening and civic beautification and philanthropic projects is invited to attend.

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of the Mendo-Lake District, California Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.