UND Today

University of North Dakota’s Official News Source

On Earth Day and its older sibling, Arbor Day, at UND

Born nearly 100 years apart, the two Spring celebrations of the environment share themes of promise and renewal

UND President Armacost (left) joins others in planting trees at the 2021 celebration of Arbor Day on the UND campus. UND archival photo.

It’s not possible to import mountains or ocean beaches to dress up the Midwestern landscape.

But it is possible – with a lot of hard work – to bring in trees. That’s just what Jared Johnson, UND’s arborist, does every day on the campus of the University.

And it’s also what J. Sterling Morton did on the plains of Nebraska in 1872, when he proposed a statewide tree-planting effort. The event became America’s first Arbor Day, and the tradition of planting trees on Arbor Day eventually spread to all 50 states.

At UND this year, Arbor Day and Earth Day – which originated in 1970 – will be celebrated at events just a few weeks apart. Specifically, Dining Services planned an Earth Day Dining Theme Meal for today — Thursday, April 21. (A second planned event – an Earth Day Campus Cleanup, scheduled for Friday, April 22 – was cancelled due to weather concerns.)

Then on May 11, UND’s celebration of Arbor Day will double as the state of North Dakota’s official Arbor Day event. North Dakota State Forester Tom Claeys is among the scheduled speakers, as are other representatives from the North Dakota Forest Service and UND.

Coinciding as they do with the coming of spring, Arbor Day and Earth Day both carry the spirit of rebirth and renewal, UND Arborist Johnson said.

Consider Arbor Day. “Originally, remember, there were no trees here,” said Johnson, talking about the UND campus in particular. When a party of dignitaries laid the cornerstone for the University’s first building in 1883, the only trees they could see were th ones along the banks of the Red River, about two miles away.

Today, the UND campus is home to some 4,500 trees, all of which are tracked and evaluated for health through special software. And as UND President Andy Armacost said at last year’s Arbor Day celebration, those trees do the University a tremendous amount of good:

“When I came to Grand Forks, I was pleased to find a community that was like an oasis of trees in the mostly flat Red River Valley,” Armacost said at last year’s event.

“I noticed this even in the middle of winter. When Kathy and I came to live on campus at University House last June, our first morning here we were greeted by a bucolic view of the sunrise over the tree-lined English Coulee.”

A Tree Campus Higher Education University

Moreover, the president continued, “as I walk around UND and see the role trees play in enhancing the beauty of the campus and making it a more vibrant space in which to live and work, I remind myself that this doesn’t happen by accident.

“Without proper planning and management by Jared (Johnson) and his crew, UND wouldn’t be recognized as a Tree Campus Higher Education University. We wouldn’t be surrounded by this beautiful setting.”

Earlier in 2021, UND was named by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree Campus Higher Education University. The designation honors UND’s continuing dedication to a health tree environment, Johnson said in a recent interview.

“Right now, our biggest goal is to try to get the tree population as diverse as possible,” Johnson said. “That way, if we’re ever hit with some sort of insect or disease that targets one variety of our trees, it would not be a big hit to the overall tree population.”

Currently, that population on campus is dominated by four types of trees: Colorado spruce, American linden, American elm and green ash. Johnson hopes to boost that number over time to 30 or more.

Meanwhile, UND’s overall tree population will continue to grow on Arbor Day, as the celebration will be highlighted by the planting of both deciduous and evergreen trees.

“I like the shade that trees provide, as well as the wildlife they support,” Johnson said.

“Plus, I like working on them: inspecting them, pruning them, seeing how they react to that pruning. It’s all just to create a strong, healthy tree, one that’s going to last as long as possible – and one that, for all of that time, will be a great reflection of the strong, healthy University that we have.”

The Arbor Day Celebration will take place at 1 p.m. near the Hopper Danley Chapel, not far from the English Coulee and the “Celebrated” remembrance wall. Admission is free.