The annual tree sale will be hosted by Community Involvement Task Force this year from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in the Iola Plaza parking lot on North State Street.
One gallon pots will be $10 and two gallon pots will be $20. There are 83 trees for sale. Tree species include, native pecans, red oak, hybrid red maple, bur oak and eastern redbud.
This annual sale was brought to Iola in the 1970s to help replace trees that were effected by Dutch Elm disease.
Dutch Elm disease and phloem necrosis, spread to Iola in 1958, killing hundreds of trees in the community. By 1961 Dutch elm disease was found in 23 eastern Kansas counties. To get the disease under control Iola citizens were encouraged to remove dead trees and weakened limbs where the beetles breed.
Healthy trees were sprayed with a DDT mixture. In 1971, 75 percent of the elm trees in Iola were removed, ridding the community of its canopied streets.
By 1970, a long-awaited shipment of trees arrived in Iola to go on sale by the Chamber of Commerce and sold for $1.50 each.
This year’s sale is a fundraiser for CITF. There will be no early sales.
Saplings for sale Saturday
