Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Media contact: Sydney Trainor | Communication Specialist | 405-744-9782 | sydney.trainor@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University hosted the 13th annual Arbor Day celebration during Oklahoma Arbor Week with the planting of two trees on the west side of the Seretean Center for the Performing Arts — one for 2023 and one for the canceled 2020 ceremony.
This year’s tree was donated by OG&E Ranger Jesse Martin. OSU Campus Tree Leadership Board members, OG&E, OSU leadership, facility management, landscape services and students took turns planting the tree.
“Today is Arbor Day, I’m so glad every single one of you are here,” said Caitlin Gipson, the university’s arborist. “We’re here to celebrate our cowboy family by planting trees on campus. This is a very special year. This is the 12th year in a row that we have received the Tree Campus for Higher Education Award from the Arbor Day Foundation.”
For the first time, OSU has been named an accredited arboretum, an internationally recognized distinction presented by the ArbNet organization, which recognizes the university’s commitment to the forest with a particular focus on education, outreach, and collaboration.
For the second year in a row, First Cowboy Darren Shrum helped plant the Arbor Day tree to beautify the campus.
“It’s such a joy to be on this campus and I’m so proud of it whenever we bring prospective students and alumni to OSU because if you walk around this campus, you really can’t find a place that isn’t pretty is. ” he said.
This year’s tree is a leafless cypress tree with green feathers, common in southeastern Oklahoma and the coastal plains of the United States
“This grows into a very large shade tree and has very soft and feathery foliage,” said Renee Schuette, chair of the OSU Society of American Foresters. “This tree has beautiful orange and russet leaves that will appear in the fall. It will be about 50 feet tall and only about 20 feet wide.
“Also, it is growing very quickly, which will help reforest our campus as much as possible. It loves the sun and does well in both wet and dry soils. And as the name suggests, it looks very light and airy to the leaves.”
Gipson also announced an anonymous donation to the Tree Care and Maintenance Fund in honor of faculty emeritus Dr. Marilyn Waters. The donor wishes to provide the Arboretum with a gift in her honor. Waters received her Ph.D. in Nutrition from OSU and served as a faculty member.
The 2020 Arbor Day celebrations have been canceled due to the pandemic. A redpointe maple was planted in honor of the 2020 celebrations.
“This one is deciduous, so it loses its leaves in the fall, displays a very bright red fall color, and has flowers that bloom in March through April,” Schutte said.
Last year, OSU planted 240 trees across campus as a reforestation effort after 250 trees were lost during ice storms in recent years.
“I just want to impress you that we’re leaving a legacy by planting a tree,” said Gipson. “We plant for each member of our cowboy family and leave a legacy in our campus forest.”
news.okstate.edu
https://news.okstate.edu/articles/communications/2023/osu_plants_2_trees_to_celebrate_oklahoma_arbor_day.html
