Matthew Thayer, who was a Coeur d'Alene High freshman when this photo was taken, helps organize and bag trees during an Arbor Day seedling sacking event in 2022. The Press and the Arbor Day Organization of North Idaho are asking people to send in then-and-now photos of former fourth graders and their Arbor Day giveaway trees in honor of the 40th anniversary of the program.
March 18, 2025
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Send us your fourth grade Arbor Day program stories and photos
Send us your fourth grade Arbor Day program stories and photos
Retired forest pathologist John Schwandt grew up in Illinois where he and his siblings received free trees for Arbor Day programs. "One of them is still there 70 years later," Schwandt said Monday. "I got interested in forestry partly as a result of that and made that my career. I’ve been very fortunate to have been out in the forest for 40-something years." chwandt, chair of the city of Coeur d'Alene's Urban Forestry Committee, served as Idaho's first forestry pathologist after he obtained a doctorate in forest diseases from the University of Idaho. "I've been in Coeur d'Alene since 1976," he said. "It was about then, because of the insect infestation problem around town, they started the forest pathology program." Having served on the Urban Forestry Committee since the 1980s, Schwandt is also a part of the nonprofit Arbor Day Organization of North Idaho. In conjunction with the city, the group has annually given away free seedlings to fourth graders since the program's inception 40 years ago.