College workers, volunteers set new greenery into ground in honor of national award

The Arbor Day Foundation named Oregon State University one of nine Tree Campus USA sites on Thursday. Along with the honor came 100 trees that college workers and volunteers began planting that morning.

“It’s actually a brand-new program. We just put it together earlier this year,” said Jennifer Boettcher, a program manager for the Arbor Day Foundation.

OSU will have to reapply for the award on a yearly basis.

Joe Majeski, OSU’s landscape manager, said the honor came at a great time, since there has been declining funding from the state to plant new trees on campus. He hoped that the Tree Campus USA designation would also provide the recognition that could lead to more grants.

OSU has about 5,000 trees on campus, and typically plants 20 to 50 new trees per year, Majeski said. “The university is committed to planting as many trees as we can in appropriate spots,” he said.

About 35 new trees became part of the campus Thursday, and the rest will be planted over the next several weeks.

City Councilor Jeanne Raymond helped shovel dirt on lilac trees planted along Orchard Avenue. She said trees are critically important to OSU, and not just for the environmental benefits. “This just adds to the community and the beauty,” she said.

Corvallis has been named a Tree City USA for seven straight years, through 2007. Applications for 2008 aren’t due until December.

Raymond added that one of her friends decided to attend OSU partly because of the ambiance that the trees bring to the campus.

“This is about the only place you can get monster trees; here and in the parks,” said Charlotte Pritchard, a full-time groundskeeper for OSU. She mentioned a red oak in the Memorial Union Quad that spreads out over nearly a full acre.

“You aren’t going to see that in someone’s yard,” she said.

OSU met five required core standards of tree care and community engagement in order to receive the Tree Campus USA status. Those standards are, establishing a campus tree advisory committee, showing evidence of a campus tree-care plan, verification of dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree-care plan, celebrating Arbor Day and instituting a service learning project aimed at engaging students.

Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.