Good Things Growing — The Ponderosa Pine Project Plants Seeds of Success

In 1957, Ponderosa Middle School opened the doors to the first phase of its building.

Sixty-five years later, Ponderosa students still learn to stand tall, branch out, and grow — both academically and socially.

The 65-Year Anniversary Project

The Ponderosa Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) celebrated the school's 65-year history with the "Ponderosa Plant Project" — planting 65 Ponderosa Pine trees which families and students planted along one of Klamath's urban trails.

And since each Ponderosa Pine was sponsored by a local citizen, business, or nonprofit, the project served as a major fundraiser for all the activities the PTO runs for Pondo students.

That elegant combination — community-honoring symbolism + practical fundraising + hands-on student involvement + lasting public benefit — is exactly what makes school PTO projects at their best so valuable.

Saturday, April 29 — A Beautiful Spring Morning

On Saturday, April 29, more than forty Ponderosa students, family members, and friends built new friendships and gave back to the community while planting a forest of majestic Ponderosa Pine Trees along the urban trail just north of Eulalona Park.

Volunteers gathered on a beautiful spring morning and enjoyed:

• Coffee and hot chocolate from Dutch Brothers
• Education from John Bellon — the City of Klamath Falls arborist and City Parks Manager — about the trees and how to plant them and nurture their growth

The Wisdom of John Bellon, City Arborist

"All you have to do is look around you and see that those that came before us did a great job of planting trees." — John Bellon

Bellon explained that local residents first planted the Ponderosa Pine Trees already growing along the Crater Lake Parkway in the 1950s or '60s.

The trees planted in April will add to the beauty of the north entrance to Klamath Falls — building on the generational tree-planting work that has shaped Klamath's urban canopy for over half a century.

A Praise for the Students

Bellon praised the students' efforts:

"This is a great project that you're doing. It has a lot of potential to make life better by helping with clean air, providing wildlife habitat, and beautifying the trail for everyone who walks it for the next century."

That phrase — make life better — captures exactly why trees matter:

• Clean air through CO2 absorption and oxygen release
• Wildlife habitat — birds, small mammals, insects all benefit
• Shade that cools urban spaces in summer
• Beauty that lifts everyone's mood
• Carbon sequestration that helps fight climate change
• Soil stability preventing erosion along trails
• Wind protection for adjacent properties

Ponderosa Pines — A Klamath Basin Signature

The Ponderosa Pine isn't just any tree. It's the signature evergreen of the Klamath Basin and broader Pacific Northwest dry forests.

Characteristics

• Long, distinctive needles in clusters of 3
• Cinnamon-colored bark on mature trees with the classic puzzle-piece pattern
• Can live 400-500+ years under good conditions
• Drought-tolerant — well-adapted to the basin's high-desert conditions
• Fire-resistant mature trees — important in a region with wildfire history
• Wildlife magnet — birds, squirrels, deer all utilize Ponderosa habitat

Planting 65 Ponderosa Pines along a Klamath urban trail isn't just landscape design — it's investing in the basin's ecological identity for the next century.

How the Sponsorships Worked

Each of the 65 trees was sponsored by a local citizen, business, or nonprofit.

What sponsors got

• A tree planted in their name along the trail
• Recognition through the PTO's project communications
• Lasting community impact — every walker, runner, cyclist, and dog-walker who passes the trees for the next century benefits from the sponsor's support

What the PTO got

• Major fundraising revenue for all the PTO's annual programming
• A high-profile community project that raised the PTO's visibility
• Family and student engagement through planting day
• Lasting reminder of the 65-year anniversary

That model — sponsored items that produce community benefit while raising funds for a nonprofit cause — is one of the smartest PTO fundraisers in the basin.

A Model for Other Schools

For Klamath County PTOs and PTAs looking for fundraising models that combine community impact + sustainability + family engagement, the Ponderosa Pine Project is worth studying.

What makes it work

• Tied to a meaningful anniversary (school's 65 years)
• Permanent physical legacy (trees lasting 400+ years)
• Multiple sponsorship tiers ($X per tree, possibly with naming opportunities)
• Volunteer planting day that engages families with the project
• Partnership with City Parks that handles ongoing maintenance
• Educational value — kids learn about trees, planting, ecology

Other schools could adapt the model:

• School celebrating 50 years → 50 trees, 50 sponsors
• School celebrating 100 years → 100 trees in a memorial grove
• New school marking opening → trees representing each grade level
• Specific student cohort celebration → trees for graduating class

The Author — Heidi Biggs

This article was written by Heidi Biggs — featured in this issue's January 2023 cover story alongside her husband Andrew and son Tommy.

Heidi serves as the Executive Director of the Klamath Community Foundation and is actively involved in numerous local organizations — including the Ponderosa PTO that organized this project.

That cross-organizational involvement — Foundation leadership + school PTO + tree planting — exemplifies the deep civic engagement that defines the Biggs family.

Continuing the Tradition

The Ponderosa Pines planted in April 2023 will:

• Grow for the next 4-5 decades before reaching mature height
• Outlive every adult who planted them
• Provide shade and beauty to Ponderosa students for many generations
• Continue the tradition Klamath residents started in the 1950s and '60s along Crater Lake Parkway
• Stand as a testament to the families who showed up that April Saturday

That kind of multi-generational thinking — planting trees we won't fully enjoy ourselves so that future generations can — is exactly the spirit Klamath Basin community-building requires.

Thank You

To the Ponderosa Middle School PTO for organizing the project.

To 65 sponsoring citizens, businesses, and nonprofits whose contributions made the trees possible.

To John Bellon, the City of Klamath Falls arborist — for the expertise, the wisdom, and the encouragement to a new generation of Klamath tree-planters.

To the 40+ volunteers — students, families, friends — who showed up on April 29 to plant.

To Heidi Biggs for writing this article and for the broader civic leadership she brings to the basin.

To the Ponderosa Pines themselves — grow tall, grow strong, and shade the kids who walk past you for the next 100+ years.

Good things growing. Long live the Ponderosa Pine Project.