MUBG Celebrates Arbor Day

Missouri, like some other states, has chosen to celebrate Arbor Day on an alternate day than the tree-planting holiday’s designated celebration on the last Friday of April. Missourians have chosen to emphasize Arbor Day on the first Friday in April. And some of us in the Show-Me state celebrate it both days. Can there be too many reasons to plant trees?

In anticipation of becoming one of the National Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree Campus Education sites, Mizzou Botanic Garden, the MU School of Natural Resources, the campus tree advisory committee, Sustain Mizzou and the Forestry Club held an Earth Day tree-planting gala on April 26. A plan to add several native trees to the area south of the Bond Life Sciences Center on the corner of College Avenue and Rollins Street — in the midst of the Allan and Vivian Purdy Missouri Native Tree Collection — was rain-delayed. Festivities, which included a tree give-away, refreshments and tree-themed comments, were moved inside the Anheuser-Busch School of Natural Resources.

Patrick Market, professor of meteorology and director of the School of Natural Resources welcomed those in attendance and introduced Arbor Day speakers.

Shibu Jose, associate dean for the Office of Research and director of MU’s Agricultural Experiment Station, thanked attendees for helping to recognize Arbor Day and shared a story about an arboreal event in his early life that led to his choice of a career in plant science.

When he was in elementary school, every fifth grader received a tree to take home and plant courtesy of Industry State Forestry.

“It was a special tree to an 11-year-old,” he said of the sandalwood tree he was given.

When he went to plant it, his grandmother told him he needed to plant it by a “mommy” tree — an established sandalwood — in order for it to flourish.

He was skeptical.

“After all,” Jose said jokingly “She only had a fourth-grade education, and I was in the fifth grade.”

“Does anyone here know what a hemi parasitic tree is?” he asked the gathered crowd, explaining that sandalwoods are a root parasite that shares resources with host plants and a young tree would have access to an established tree’s resources, giving it a greater chance of survival.

“She didn’t know the science, but had the traditional knowledge,” he said.

Missouri Department of Conservation’s Director, Sara Parker Pauley, followed Jose, emphasizing the importance of native tress as being well-adapted and non-invasive and shared some Missouri-centric tree facts as well as some of trees’ positive impacts.

“Black walnut is Missouri’s official tree nut and this state is top producer of black walnuts,” Parker Pauley said.

In addition to contributing to humans’ physical well-being, she said, established trees can increase a home’s value by 3% to 15% and a tree’s dense shade can provide a temperature reduction of up to 20%. Additionally, trees can reduce run-off by up to 20%.

“Missouri’s trees store 12.4 million tons of carbon,” Parker Pauley added. “Trees add $10 billion dollars to the state’s economy.”

Hank Stelzer, School of Natural Resources associate professor of forestry and State Extension forestry specialist, Sam Wright, Mizzou’s urban forester and a member of the City of Columbia’s Tree Board and Tim Maloney, landscape instructor in Plant Sciences — were introduced and spoke briefly about MUBG’s 6,000 trees and their importance to the campus.

Also in attendance was Mizzou Botanic Garden’s new Director Joe Kovolyan, who highlighted the dedication of his new staff and their work overseeing the trees and gardens on campus.

“The garden touches all who come to Mizzou,” he added. “The Purdy native tree collection was planted in 2004, a legacy and an education for students and others.”