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NATCHEZ — The second-grade students at Gilmer McLaurin Elementary School could not contain their excitement while gathered at the front lawn of the campus on Friday for the planting of three new trees in celebration of Arbor Day.

Though the actual holiday doesn’t come until April, the fall trees they planted like the cooler weather and the students will still have plenty of time to nurture them for the holiday, said Misty Booth, a forester of the Green Infrastructure Center.

“We have been working with the city for the past seven months or so in a planning phase, which is now leading to the exciting planting phase. Over the next year, there’ll be a lot of trees planted in Natchez, so this is just a sign of things to come,” Booth said. “We’re very happy to be here, particularly with kids. We want them to have ownership in this and get dirty planting a tree and caring for it. These are their trees. So happy Arbor Day Natchez and we thank you for letting us be a part of it.”

The Natchez Adams School District Public Engagement Coordinator Tony Fields said the trees are something for the McLaurin second graders “can be proud of” as they stop and see them growing at the school even as they leave there and grow up themselves.

Ryan Porter, the director of Natchez Parks and Recreation, said the city has been working on a plan to be “more sustainable in relation to tree canopy coverage.”

Each one of the students had the opportunity to bury the roots of one of three trees, including a magnolia tree that will grow the Mississippi state flower, a Shumard oak and a ginkgo tree, which in the fall turns bright yellow like the school’s colors.