Russell Evans, manager of sustainability with Physical Plant, Clint Rushing, an alumnus with a degree in horticulture, and several students came together outside of Meade Hall to dig into the Earth and plant a 10 ft. tall Live Oak tree in celebration of Arbor Day 2012.
“Bracy’s Nursery of Amite donated the tree to the university for Arbor Day,” said Evans.
Evans explained to the group how Physical Plant was observing Arbor Day with the tree planting as a step towards a new accreditation for the university entitled “Tree Campus USA.”
“It’s a program that National Arbor Foundation developed in 2008,” said Evans. “It’s open to campus universities and colleges. You have to meet criteria. You have to meet five standards. One is a Tree Advisory Committee, Tree Care Plan, show dedicated expenditures toward tree care, Arbor Day observance, which is what we did today, and Service Learning Projects. We’re beginning to work on all five steps. Once we complete it, we will become a Tree Campus USA. There’s not very many of them in the country that have that accreditation. I think it’s a bright spot for the university to be a Tree Campus USA.”
Tree Campus USA is a program of the National Arbor Day Foundation, the world’s oldest and largest tree-planting organization, and encourages universities and colleges to promote a healthy relationship between its community and its trees.
Although the group was small, all of the students who attended were eager to help plant the tree.
“I found out about Arbor Day through Russell Evans, our sustainability manager, and myself and Bonnie May came representing Reconnect, the ecological group on campus,” said Amy Edwards, a junior majoring in sociology. “I think that it was a very small and cheerful, upbeat group of tree enthusiasts.”
Among the students who attended were a few international students from Nepal and Venezuela.
“It’s great. I think it’s awesome to have an opportunity to contribute to our community,” said Andreina Colina, a junior majoring in music education from Venezuela. “We named her Virginia, so I’m excited.”
The students look forward to walking by the tree and watching it grow over the years.
“I think it’s important to show our efforts in sustainability and sustaining the environment and our campus,” said Evans. “With sustainable landscaping, the key factor with that are trees. You can take flowerbeds in and out periodically throughout the years, but trees are our sustainable landscape. It’s good as a university that we continue to take care of our trees on campus through proper pruning and proper planting and also get a diverse selection of trees on campus. So it’s a sustainable effort landscape.”
For additional information on Tree Campus USA, contact Evans by emailing him at [email protected] or by calling Physical Plant at 985-549-2023.