Students, campus grounds staff, forestry specialists and residents of Durham gathered Tuesday at the East Campus Gazebo for a ceremony to commemorate Duke in becoming the first Tree Campus USA in North Carolina.
The National Arbor Day Foundation named Durham a Tree City USA 26 years ago and named Duke one of the first Tree Campuses in the country on Arbor Day Tuesday. The morning began with the placement of 26 trees on East and West campuses before the ceremony-one for every year that Durham has been a Tree City USA.
"[This award] commits us to the continuation of our tree program," said Joe Jackson, assistant director of Grounds, Sanitation and Recycling Services. "We certainly want to challenge our brother and sister campuses to do the same thing."
The foundation recognizes colleges for positively managing campus trees and engaging the student body and surrounding community to nurture urban forests, according to the Arbor Day Foundation Web site.
Durham's Urban Forestry staff handed out free saplings to visitors throughout the day. In the afternoon, Mayor Bill Bell made an appearance in front of approximately 30 attendees and spoke briefly at the award ceremony.
Duke Grounds Superintendent Roger Conner said Duke is a "university in a forest," and it was "natural" for the University to become a Tree Campus.
He noted that now is the perfect time to take advantage of the rain and replace the trees that have been lost in recent years due to the drought, storms and old age. The young trees will take one to two years to establish, Conner said, adding that diverse trees were selected to better equip the campus for new insects and diseases.
Jackson played a role in deciding which trees to plant, trying "to keep it in context with what is existent in the area," he said.
The trees were selected for their aesthetic appeal, their deciduous characteristics and their tolerance of the microclimactic conditions like the soil and sun patterns, Jackson said.
He noted old Willow oaks scattered around the grounds were some of the first trees planted on campus. The monstrous trees have stood for 80 to 90 years, and some are beginning to show signs of old age, Conner said.
Freshman Liz Brandy, with a shovel in hand, helped plant a young oak by the gazebo.
"Being green is really trendy now," she said, "It's one thing to talk about being a green campus, but it's great to actually be pursuing it."
Freshman Ben Soltoff said he appreciates Duke's commitment to trees on campus.
"When I visited last year, one of the first things I noticed was that it had lots of trees," he said, "Seeing the trees everywhere was part of that feeling that you know you're in the right place."
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