Making Springfield greener, one tree at a time

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - A tree that was destroyed by the June 1 tornado in downtown Springfield is back!

Members of the Paperboard Packaging Council , which is headquartered near Court Square, planted a tree there Wednesday morning.

Normally, the trade association members would spend Earth Week educating students about trees. This year, they decided that since the city lost so many trees last year, they would spend this week giving about 200 trees back to the community.

"We were very devastated when the Court Square area lost all the trees and we thought the most important thing we could do it put a tree back, so we got this Princeton Elm . We were happy to put it in and pay for it,” said Ben Markens, President of the Paperboard Packaging Council.

After the tree-planting event Wednesday morning, members of PPC were heading out to hand out free saplings to members of the community.