The 24th annual tree plant began this morning on the southwest edge of Grants Pass on county land beginning at the turn around at the end of Elk Lane.

Event organizer Ross Roe gave us a rundown of the event, “We run the three full days and the schools come on Thursday and Friday each year; the Boy Scouts load up and they bring a shuttle bus that they keep running every hour and they do that with other organizations that come in on Saturday.”

Today over 430 youngsters were expected to plant two year old seedlings in pre-augured holes prepared by Josephine County forestry personnel.

Almost 550 students are expected to participate Friday with 20 area schools busing in participants. An additional 150 plus young people are anticipated Saturday.

Since its inception, 18,000 young people have planted 75,000 trees in the event. Roe, who has been at every event, says he has never seen a misbehaved child at the tree planting.