All ETSU students, faculty and personnel are invited to attend the Arbor Day Celebration Tree Give Away this Friday at 1 p.m. on Borchuck Plaza in front of the Sherrod Library. The celebration will be followed by tours of ETSU’s arboretum.
Four different types of trees will be given away at this year’s event to anyone who wants one. The types of seedlings available are Bald Cypress, Persimmon, Sawtooth Oak and American Plum.
Last year’s giveaway was a big success with over 500 trees given away. This year there are 2,000.
“We scheduled it on Friday so students can take trees home at break if they like,” said Dr. Tim McDowell professor of biological sciences. “I don’t think they can just plant them outside of their apartments.”
Student participation is something McDowell said he hopes to see more of this year. He says a lot of the time there is more faculty, personnel and community involvement than there is from students.
The Arbor Day celebration existed at ETSU generations ago, but it was only revived recently by last year’s successful celebration.
Following the celebration, arboretum tours will be given. An arboretum is often described as an outdoor tree museum and ETSU’s arboretum, which encompasses the entire campus, is an example of one of the finest in the region because of the diverse number of trees that can be found here.
Through outside grants and with the help of ETSU’s Physical Plant, the variety of trees planted on campus has grown.
“We’re trying to make campus better and more interesting by diversifying,” McDowell said.
McDowell said the planting of different kind of trees on campus has been a tradition at ETSU ever since the university was established so that makes the expansion of the arboretum easier.
“We started with a great base, with a great selection of old trees,” he said.
A plaque will also be presented by two forest rangers at the give-away to honor the admission of ETSU’s arboretum into a class IV category.
In order for arboretum to receive the class IV certification it must meet several criteria, one of which requires it to encompass at least 150 different types of trees. After this year’s spring planting ETSU’s arboretum will have over 250.

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