This week on Good News on The Current, we spotlight some do-gooders from right in your own backyard … well, if your backyard has some trees to climb. 

Minnesota is home to the world’s only tree-climbing brass band, the Midway-Frogtown Arborators Band, and their mission is right there in their name. As Arborators, they are people who plant, prune or care for trees. The group comprises a variety of different stewards for trees, from arborists to tree care enthusiasts, park workers, forestry workers and everything in between.  

Trees do in fact help our world by cleaning the air, filtering water, and even slowing down storm damage that comes into the cities. They also make our surroundings more beautiful. 

It’s a great thing to be enthusiastic about, and what better way to let everyone know about what you care about than through music? That’s exactly what the members of this group do as they put on their helmets and clip into their harnesses, hoisting their instruments and themselves 30 or so feet into the trees to make some noise and to spread the message of conservation from the trees themselves. 

Here’s one of the songs you might hear in our Minnesotan urban forests from this group — it's Whoopee John Wilfahrt’s version of the “St. Paul Waltz.”

If you have a story to tell about music making a positive impact in the world, a moment or a memory associated with a song or an artist, or maybe sparked by something you hear here, share your good news at ajaffer@mpr.org.