The City of McMinnville and the Tennessee Environmental Council (TEC) joined forces on Saturday, all in the name of planting trees — and it was a resounding success.

For the past five years, the City of McMinnville has partnered with TEC to host Tennessee Tree Day in McMinnville. This day is observed all across the state and its mission is simple: To plant as many native and non-invasive trees as possible. In order to facilitate the mass-planting, bare-root saplings are provided free of charge to the public.

According to City Stormwater Manager Lyndon Bussell, this year’s rendition was the most avidly attended yet. Hundreds flocked to claim saplings and 500 were given away in less than an hour, an unprecedented amount for the event.

“We usually have some chairs because we normally have some lull, but we didn’t today,” Bussell said. “When we got here, there were people waiting looped around an entire block of the Milner Recreation Center parking lot.”

Some of the varieties of trees given away, such as the elderberry, are great magnets for pollinators and birds. A few varieties of trees were more popular, however, such as the eastern redbud. A frequent choice for its brightly colored blooms, the tree was one of the first varieties to be exhausted.

“This has grown over the years. We started with 100 trees and kind of scaled it up from there,” Bussell explained. “The trees themselves come from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture in Missouri and some of them come from West and East Tennessee.”

TEC reports it has distributed and planted a million trees since its inception and 162 volunteer pick-up sites across the state handed out 75,000 trees to 7,000 participants and an estimated 10,000 volunteers assisted in planting them.

“I’m pleased with how everything went this year, but I would have liked to have been able to prepare enough trees for everyone who came out today,” Bussell said.