At 1 p.m., May 16, Camden will hold its 26th Arbor Day observance, resuming an annual celebration after a two-year COVID pause. 

The public is encouraged to attend the event at the corner of Park Street and Route 1, adjacent to the T.D. Bank parking lot, where three new street trees will be planted.

The tree-planting with kick off the largest planting of public street trees since 1995, when MBNA partnered with Camden, the Camden Garden Club, Conservation Commission and residents to plant more than 240 street trees.

This year, the plan to increase Camden’s street tree population by 50 was initiated by Treen Waren Dave. St. Laurent and a new group of tree volunteers.

For two decades, the Park Street location was the site of three dying sugar maples that faced challenges from road salt, and aggressive pruning by Central Maine Power due to overhead power lines.

Until recently, one dead tree remained.

In April, Nancy Caudle-Johnson and her husband, Douglas Johnson, who live at the corner of Park and Pearl streets, proposed a donation from their company, Treekeepers, LLC, of three three-inch caliber Donald Wyman crabapples, if the town would remove the sugar maple.

The town agreed, and May 16, a Treekeeper crew and Camden Public Works Dept. will plant the crabapples.