The City of Ponca City Park and Recreation Department and Philips 66 have partnered together for a tree farm project. Work on the project began in 2020 after Ponca City Park and Recreation Director Eric Newell and Phillips 66 Community Relations Coordinator Erin Liberton brainstormed several ideas that would be good for Ponca City, and even included Phillips 66 summer interns working to design potential plans for the tree farm project.

Philips 66 provided a grant of $25,000 to fund the tree farm. The trees were planted on Monday, July 12 after city employees and Phillips 66 volunteers prepared the bags of dirt for planting on Friday, July 9.

“The goal is to get them to grow and have healthy trees, and a healthy urban forest,” said Newell.

The tree farm is located just north of Pioneer Technology Center and is home to a variety of saplings including oak, maple, elm and Chinese pistache. The trees are planted in bags that will prune the roots and force the tree to grow more network roots as opposed to fewer really strong roots in circles.

When the trees have reached about an inch to two inches they will be moved out to be put into parks and replaced with new saplings.

The Park and Rec Department will also be going for a Growth Award for the City with the Arbor Day Foundation.