{"id":605785,"date":"2026-04-25T15:05:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/605785\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T15:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T15:05:32","slug":"watertown-plants-tree-honoring-city-planning-director-at-arbor-day-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/605785\/","title":{"rendered":"Watertown plants tree honoring city planning director at Arbor Day ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; Watertown planted a bur oak at Thompson Park on Arbor Day to honor Mike Lumbis, the city\u2019s planning and community director, who has overseen the planting of hundreds of trees in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cEvery day is a great day for planting trees, but it\u2019s a little extra special on Arbor Day,\u201d said Lumbis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The tree was planted at the 29th Annual Arbor Day Ceremony. Speakers from the city of Watertown, Tree Watertown and the Watertown Noon Rotary Club discussed the benefits of planting trees in the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cProperty values go up when you plant a tree,\u201d said Phil Sprague, founding member of Tree Watertown. \u201cPeople\u2019s health gets better when you plant a tree. Crime goes down when you plant a tree in the neighborhood. I mean that\u2019s just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Lumbis was one of the first to help plant the tree in the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cYou know this tree was planted in my honor, but it\u2019s really about all of the efforts by the community and all the volunteers,\u201d Lumbis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mayor Sarah Pierce said the tree was chosen for its characteristics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe bur oak is a strong and resilient species, known for its longevity and ability to thrive, which are fitting words to describe Mike\u2019s impact on our community,\u201d Pierce said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWNY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) &#8211; Watertown planted a bur oak at Thompson Park on Arbor Day to honor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[263377,192,263378,79,138117],"class_list":["post-605785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-arbor-day","tag-environment","tag-mike-lumbis","tag-science","tag-tree-planting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}