SAN ANTONIO – More than 300 trees were given away at the Tree Centennial Fest at Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy on Saturday.
Dozens of volunteers, including 8-year-old Isabella Majors, planted hundreds of native plants for a pollinator garden during the official SA300 event.
“I like digging in the dirt,” Majors said of the volunteer work.
During the Tricentennial event, the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, along with the conservancy, gave out 300 trees, with the goal of putting more oxygen into the air in San Antonio.
“The big savior to our oxygen or retaining our levels of oxygen we need is trees,” said Chuck Saxer, with Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy. “It’s something everyone can plant, everyone can participate in.”
Gail Gallegos brought her niece Isabella out to help plant in the butterfly meadow to encourage less screen time and more outdoor time.
“Anytime you are in a park, you are just going to get that great energy from all the beautiful plants -- flora, fauna -- that are out here,” Gallegos said. “It’s real time with real things instead of screen time.”
The Tricentennial event preceded the groundbreaking for the Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge, which has been in the works for the park since 2008.
The unique land bridge is intended to provide accessibility across Wurzbach Parkway. It will give people and wildlife a path to the east and west sides of the parkway.
“A variety of plants that will be on the bridge were selected based upon their root structure, how deep the soil needs to be in that area, so we can have this feature feeling like you are actually walking over a hill,” Saxer said.
The bridge will connect the two sides of the 330-acre park and is projected to be done in 16 months.