NORMAL, lll. – ISU students and staff recently celebrated Arbor with a series of tree plantings throughout campus. Fell Arboretum Outreach Coordinator Sydney Metternich explained how these plantings are planned.
“We have a committee that meets, and it’s made up of people on campus that care about the trees. We started planning this at the beginning of the year, and we knew we knew we wanted to involve students in these plantings to celebrate Arbor Day.”
While current trees on campus have a history, they were planted with the community’s future in mind.
“The Fell Arboretum is named after Jesse Fell he started planting trees in the mid-1800s, and his intentions for it were such a good educational resource for students and also just enjoyment for the community. “
ISU houses diverse trees throughout the quad and in the arboretum. But there’s more to their beauty as to why trees continue to be planted around campus.
“Not all trees or plants are going to be happy growers in the shade or the sun. We take into account what’s happening around the area and whether we need a small or big tree. We also think about the classes. A lot of classes in biology or horticulture use certain trees or plants to observe the tree or the bark, and classes can point out what they want in their curriculum.”
Metternich works closely with the arboretum to provide student resources, and she hopes to bring more people in to see what they offer.
“We try to get a very diverse collection because we get certain accreditations for having so many different kinds of species. We’re really focused on making the arboretum more accessible to students for resources and a fun interactive place to go.”