DAR to Plant 600 Trees in Coeur d'Alene Honoring Air Force Veteran

When Trina Caudle leads volunteers into the field at French Gulch Road and McGee Way on April 11, she will be planting trees in the same ground her father once homesteaded. Caudle, regent of the Pleasantview Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is organizing the planting of roughly 600 evergreen seedlings to establish a new DAR Forest in Coeur d'Alene, honoring U.S. Air Force Maj. Doral L. McGee, who served 20 years before making a life on the private property that now bears his name.

For Caudle, the project carries weight beyond conservation. The forest is "more than trees," she said, calling it "a legacy of service, stewardship and deep-rooted patriotism."

The planting runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and is open to residents of all ages. Organizers recommend muck boots or waterproof shoes and a shovel or trowel.

The Pleasantview Chapter's effort connects to a national DAR tradition dating to 1939, when the organization launched the Penny Pines program, with Civilian Conservation Corps support, to fund and plant trees as part of its golden jubilee. Idaho DAR chapters have stayed active in reforestation since: Project Pinecone, a 2024-2025 initiative, raised more than $25,000 to plant more than 200,000 seedlings in the Sawtooth National Forest following the Wapiti Fire, and separate work addressed land affected by the Trinity Ridge Fire.

The April 11 planting marks a different kind of restoration. Rather than recovering federal forestland scorched by wildfire, this project dedicates a grove on private land with a specific human story at its center. Maj. McGee homesteaded the corner of French Gulch Road and McGee Way after two decades in uniform; 600 seedlings going into that same soil will formalize a living memorial in his name.

The DAR's open invitation to all ages frames the event as a working commemoration rather than a ceremony, linking hands-on conservation with community memory. Six hundred seedlings at one site represents a measurable addition to local tree cover; for Caudle, the grove will carry meaning no broad-scale restoration project can replicate.