A crowd of 40 people gathered in Horace Austin Park New Year’s Eve to plant the first tree of the new millennium and with it hope for the future.

Sunday, January 02, 2000

A crowd of 40 people gathered in Horace Austin Park New Year’s Eve to plant the first tree of the new millennium and with it hope for the future.

"The ‘Millennium Maple’ represents a community commitment to improve Austin’s landscape as it is the fist of 400 trees to be planted in Austin during the year 2000," said Mayor Bonnie Rietz.

"Some day someone will ask you where you were or what you did at the change of the millennium. All of you will have an interesting story to tell," said Mike Ruzek, president of Spruce Up Austin, Inc.

Dubbed the "Millennium Maple" for the obvious reason, the 15 foot 6 inches sugar maple tree planted Friday night near the fishing pier in Horace Austin Park was 4 inches in diameter and 10 years old.

The ceremonies were coordinated by Spruce Up Austin, Inc. with help from the Austin Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department.

Because of the cold winter weather, extra precautions had to be taken and Dennis Maschka, executive director of the Austin PRF, was there to guarantee them.

The PRF workers dug the hole and left a large pile of mulch. Also many buckets of "warm" dirt were at the scene and each witness tossed a spade of the soil into the hole around the tree.

The tree planting was made possible by a generous donation from the Austin Rotary Club.

A special marker denotes the special tree.

The city of Austin has been a designated Tree City USA for two decades and when it lost over 3,000 trees to a June 1998 windstorm, the damage was literally and figuratively devastating.

SUA, Inc., now celebrating its tenth anniversary, was among the leaders in rally citizens to help replant Austin.

Then came a $75,000 contribution from Hormel Foods Corporation and the replanting efforts began in earnest in the spring and summer of 1999.

As Mayor Rietz noted, they will continue this year with 400 more trees replanted.

Ruzek quoted Theodore Roosevelt at Friday night’s ceremonies held at the stroke of midnight with church bells ringing in the background.

"To exist as a nation, to prosper as a state, to live as a people we must have trees," Ruzek quoted Roosevelt as saying, adding. "These words are even more important today."

"This beautiful tree is already 10 years old and, therefore, traverses millennium to millennium and century to century," Ruzek said. "It is our hope that this Millennium Maple will become a symbol of not only caring for our environment, but also of a renewed spirit to embrace and carry on with more vigor those values most represented by a generation who began their lives in the early part of the century."

"Values such as the belief that hard work is the key to success, taking responsibility for one’s own actions, a strong belief in education and compassion for others and a strong loyalty to these United States," he said.

Mayor Rietz also told the crowd she proclaimed Saturday, January 1, to be "Millennium Maple Day" in Austin.

She quoted Frank Lloyd Wright, who said "The best friend on earth of people is the tree" and also noted the tree planting symbolized a "renewed spirit to embrace and carry on the values of a generation that started their lives at the beginning of this century."

She closed her remarks quoting poet Lucy Larcum, who said, "One who plants a tree plants a hope."

On the first day of the new century in Austin, children and adults, including senior citizens, some dressed in New Year’s Eve party hats and blowing horns, planted hope along the Cedar River.