The 2014 Green Week will end today with the Arbor Day Celebration.
Members of the community and students from campus will gather in the Grove to plant two trees at 11:30 a.m. The event serves as both a way to participate in Arbor Day activities as well as a way to give back to the community and the university.
The event will include a speech from Jeff McManus, the director of landscape services for the university. McManus will speak on the importance of trees, specifically at the university.
The event will be open to the public. Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability Anne McCauley said trees will be given to the first 25 in attendance.
McCauley said the Office of Sustainability has helped with the event’s details. She said the event was planned primarily by Landscape Services.
McCauley said the event shows how important it is to take care of the campus’s natural environment.
“We are fortunate to have so many beautiful, old trees on campus,” McCauley said. “I hope that students appreciate trees in a new way, not only for their beauty but also for the important role they play in maintaining healthy ecosystems on which we all depend. Having Jeff McManus and Landscape Services host this event also shows students that the trees on our campus are a very intentional and valued resource that is taken care of by a team of arborists and landscaping professionals.”
Grace Sullivan, a freshman journalism major from Madison, is a member of Students for a Green Campus. Sullivan said that the organization isn’t directly related to the event, but the members work closely with the Office of Sustainability.
Sullivan said she hopes the event will show members of the community, students and faculty that they can work together to promote sustainability.
“I hope that we have a lot of unexpected people come,” Sullivan said. “I love that this is a totally open event, because even though we’re just planting two trees, I see it as a symbol of our commitment to sustainability, and all of us at The University have to make that commitment together as a team if it’s going to be effective.”
Alex Borst, freshman international studies major form Madison, is also a member of Students for a Green Campus. He said that he hopes Arbor Day Celebration will help the number of people in the sustainability community increase.
“I hope that as people continue coming to the events, they’ll see that we have a really good community of people working together on campus to further sustainable causes and things like that,” Borst said. “I really hope that those people would get plugged into our community and find a place to continue working with us because we really enjoy having them.”
