Northwestern, Evanston Celebrate Shared Love of Trees

EVANSTON, Ill. --- In celebration of spring and the shared honor of being deemed tree-loving locales by the Arbor Day Foundation, Northwestern students, faculty, staff and a handful of their Evanston neighbors took a stroll across campus one Sunday late last month.

Evanston, known widely for its thriving urban forest, was recognized as a 2014 Tree City USA community while Northwestern was named a Tree Campus. The tree walk followed on a brisk but sunny morning April 26.

Wrapping up a bevy of Earth Week events organized by the Office of Sustainability, the tree walk wound across University grounds, 240 acres that are home to several hundred varieties of trees, grasses, shrubs and flowers.

Guide and Facilities Management Groundskeeper Tim Spahn, recounted the storm in 2011 that ripped about 40 trees from the ground, roots and all, including a dozen old oaks. He introduced the University’s newest additions to the tree family -- eight sapling oaks planted outside of Harris Hall by students in honor of Arbor Day.

“We are all part of the same urban forest here -- there is no boundary between the trees the air and the water,” said Wendy Pollock, an Evanston TreeKeeper.