A tree campus sprouts in Lincolnland

The Arbor Day Society is promoting trees by designating Tree campuses across the USA. To qualify a campus must have at least one tree on campus, an advisory committee on tree resources, a tree care plan, a regular budget for tree care, some sort of service learning project involving campus and/or community trees, and lastly engage in the observance of Arbor Day.

In the inaugural year of this program 39 colleges and universities qualified, and my heart soars like an eagle to see that Lincolnland’s oldest public institution of higher learning, Illinois State University, was among them (so far the only campus so designated in the whole state). The university’s founder, Jesse Fell was an ardent planter of trees, and presently the campus grounds officially constitute the Fell Arboretum. This is a bit ironic because at its founding the university was located about 3 miles out of town (Bloomington) on the open prairie, and now only 1% of Illinois’ native prairie still exists. Nonetheless, the Phactor cannot argue with the idea of planting trees (his own urban estate is home to over 150 species of woody plants).