Media advisory: Community planting honors EWEB�s 100 years

What: A morning of planting 100 trees in Eugene as part of EWEB’s commemoration of its centennial year as a citizen-owned utility.

Who: More than 50 EWEB employees, retirees and commissioners will be joined by Friends of Trees and community volunteers.

When: 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Where: Along Roosevelt Boulevard, between Fergus and Bertelsen streets. The plantings will be mainly along the north side of Roosevelt, between the street and the bicycle-pedestrian path. Check-in station is on EWEB property, south of the light at Roosevelt and Fergus (just east of Beltline).

There will also be a planting along both sides of the “A3 Channel” of Amazon Creek, along Roosevelt Boulevard between Danebo and North Terry streets. The City of Eugene Parks and Open Space volunteer program partnered with Eugene Tree Foundation on three earlier plantings. This fourth phase is a collaboration with City of Eugene, EWEB and Friends of Trees.

Why: As part of its centennial year as a public utility, EWEB wanted to create a “legacy project” that would leave a gift of some kind to the community. Friends of Trees wanted to introduce itself to the community following the Eugene Tree Foundation’s recent decision to combine efforts with the Portland-based non-profit organization to establish a Friends of Trees branch in Eugene.

EWEB, founded on March 11, 1911, is celebrating a century of dedicated service as a citizen-owned utility. Although it originally began as a water utility, EWEB has morphed into Oregon’s largest citizen-owned utility and the nation’s 34th largest public electric utility, serving nearly 200,000 people in the Eugene area.

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