University News

WIU Arbor Day Celebration April 24

April 14, 2015

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MACOMB, IL — According to SavaTree.com, a single tree produces approximately 260 pounds of oxygen per year, which translates to two mature trees supplying enough oxygen annually to support a family of four.

A great way to "thanks" what trees do for us will be held Friday, April 24 as Western Illinois University's Facilities Management and Horn Field Campus host the Annual Arbor Day Celebration and special spring We Care event.

Beginning at 1:30 p.m. an Arbor Day ceremony will be held on the Sherman Hall front lawn, followed by mulching activities around campus. At 2:30 p.m., tree saplings will be planted at Western's Horn Field Campus, 985 S. China Rd. To volunteer for the Arbor Day "We Care" activities, contact Tara Beal, superintendent of landscape maintenance, at TS-Beal@wiu.edu.

For the third year, Western has been designated as a Tree Campus USA. Western achieved the title by meeting the Tree Campus USA organization's five standards: maintaining a tree advisory committee, having a campus tree care plan, dedicating annual expenditures toward trees, hosting an Arbor Day observance and sponsoring student service-learning projects.

Western's landscape maintenance department, within facilities management, maintains more than 2,700 trees on the Macomb campus. Each fall, as part of the "We Care" event, Western's volunteer campus beautification program, trees are planted and/or mulching is completed around existing trees. Each spring, as part of Arbor Day, School of Agriculture Forestry Instructor George Blome and urban forestry management students lead tree plantings with elementary schools in western Illinois, a tradition that was started in 1993 by WIU Forestry Professor Tom Green. In addition, each spring semester, two trees are planted on WIU's Macomb campus to honor WIU employees and students who have passed away.

A complete WIU tree inventory can be found at http://gis.wiu.edu/flexviewers/wiu_tree.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing