On March 23, a collection of EcoNuts club members helped give away free tree seedlings in celebration of Arbor Day.
All afternoon, volunteers were either at Borchuck Plaza or in the parking lot of Earthfare. One volunteer was ETSU Sophomore Abigail Brown.
“We’re giving out trees to give life back to the planet,” said Brown.
The EcoNuts is a club organized by the ETSU Department of Sustainability. This celebration was a joint venture between this department, ETSU’s Department of Biological Science and Bartlett Tree Experts.
There were five types of trees one could choose from at the event; the European Hornbeam, Persimmon, Red Hickory, Sweet Bay Magnolia and Willow Oak. The seedlings were donated by Bartlett Tree Experts and there were around 1,800 trees given out.
Sophomore Brenan Bailey arrived at the event looking for some trees to plant in his yard.
“It’s relatively expensive to get certain trees and I can come here to get it for free,” Bailey said.
Last year Bailey came to this event and picked up pecan trees. This year he picked up three trees: two persimmons and one hornbeam.
ETSU Senior Nathan Farnor picked up a Sweet Bay Magnolia at the event. He decided to come to this event due to how he’s seen Johnson City develop over the years.
“As this area expands, I see we’ve continued to cut down trees and take up more land and I’m trying to do my part to give back and replace some of the pieces of nature that we’ve taken,” Farnor said.
Another person who shares a similar sentiment is Kathleen Moore.
She encourages people to plant trees because trees have a life expectancy and need to be replenished so that they can filter out all the pollution and carbon from the atmosphere.
“When you plant a tree, you plant an investment in the future,” said Moore.
