Beaverton brings out a tree-loving crowd on its own Arbor Day ...

Jeff Mapes/The OregonianHeather Peterson and several members of the Rangers, a Tualatin Hills Babe Ruth League, move a Douglas Fir tree into place along Fanno Creek trail.

To cheers and snapping cameras, landscaping student Heather Peterson and several 13-year-old boys from a local Babe Ruth baseball team muscled a 5-foot Douglas fir tree up a slope Saturday morning to its new home along a bicycle and pedestrian trail in Beaverton.

Such small triumphs were the order of the day as about 90 people turned out for Beaverton's annual Arbor Day celebration, which naturally enough is centered around the joy of getting your hands dirty while adding some lasting natural beauty to the world.

"It's just a great group project to do together," said Peterson, a volunteer with Portland-based Friends of Trees who is working on a landscaping degree at Portland Community College. "It's not like you're sitting around watching a movie. You're out doing something together that is permanent."

Saturday wasn't technically Arbor Day; it's actually April 27 this year. But it is Arbor Week in Oregon, and Beaverton for 18 years has held a tree-planting celebration during the week.

"It wasn't always like this," said Patrick Hoff, the city's lead arborist. "The first few years, we'd just plant a couple trees, put a plaque in the ground and call it good."

But for the past several years, the city has widely advertised the event and worked with Friends of Trees to bring out a crowd. This year, they chose a newly built section of the Fanno Creek Trail near Southwest Allen Boulevard to get a tree makeover.

Under the guidance of the arbor experts, the mostly youthful volunteers planted 20 Douglas firs, 15 red cedars and five Oregon white oaks. One of Hoff's big goals was to plant several trees native to the area that would screen off the city's operations yard from the trail.

The newbies learned the do's and don'ts of planting trees, including the warning that one of the surest ways to kill a newly planted tree is to sink it too deeply into the ground. Plant it "high and proud," advised Peterson.

Beaverton is one of 55 communities in Oregon officially designated as a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Among other things, the city hands out copies of a 150-page guide to help residents choose suitable trees for planting along streets. And anytime anyone cuts down a tree, it's sure to spark discussion in the neighborhood.

"It does seem the residents do concern themselves not just with their own trees, but with the health of the trees in their city," said Katie Wilson, a landscaper for the city. She added that she likes the fact that people will argue about a tree that has been cut down.

"Sometimes it is the right decision and sometimes it is not," she said, "and you need people who have been educated to debate that."

--Jeff Mapes