A billion trees for the world, 30 trees for USC.
Students and faculty will celebrate Arbor Day and the United Nation's Billion Tree Campaign by planting 30 trees around campus between noon and 3:30 p.m. today.
Professor Rudy Mancke of the School of Environment will give a speech at West Quad Learning Center. A tree will also be planted at the end of the day to recognize Bruce Coull, the previous dean of the School of Environment.
Students Allied for Green Earth, Carolina Service Council, Mountaineering and Whitewater Club, Student Government, Methodist Student Network, School of the Environment and Landscaping Services organized the event.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched the Billion Tree Campaign.
According to the UNEP Web site: "people, communities, organizations, business and industry, civil society and governments are being encouraged to plant trees and enter their tree planting pledges on this web site. The objective is to plant at least 1 billion trees worldwide during 2007."
Megan Braun, a member of the Carolina Service Council and a second-year accounting student, said the goal is attainable.
"I feel this is not an unrealistic task for almost 6.7 billion people to accomplish, and it is a chance for college students and faculty alike to actively participate in the environment in which they live," Braun said.
Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for her work with the environment and women, founded The Billion Tree Campaign.
Initially, she began her campaign in Kenya in 1977 with the Green Belt Movement, an organization that aimed at planting trees around Africa by women's groups. This movement planted more than 30 million trees in 12 African countries.
With Maathai as the benefactor, UNEP began its campaign to plant a billion trees worldwide by 2007.
Anyone can pledge for any number of trees through an online form at http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/pledges/index.asp. It is the responsibility of the person who pledged to organize the actual planting of the tree.
Kristen Boegner, SAGE's Vice President of Community Service and a second-year geography student, said it's easy to pledge.
"It's so easy to register online; just register even one, and it's better for the environment," Boegner said.
The saplings to be planted are various oaks, birches, maples, redwoods and dogwoods. They will be planted on a hillside between the Child Development Center and Rocky Branch Creek.
Boegner said the trees would grow well in their plots.
"This is a good spot because it's bare and it's very moist, almost swamp," Boegner said.
Al Gore said trees are culturally significant, according to the UNEP Web site.
"The symbolism - and the substantive significance - of planting a tree has universal power in every culture and every society on Earth," Gore said.
Braun said she understands the symbolism of trees from living in Colorado.
"Ever since Columbine, trees have been symbolic of growth, help and unity in my state," Braun said.
Maathai said she encountered frustrations during her years of work when people did not want to plant the trees because they "do not grow fast enough," according to the UNEP Web site.
"I have to keep reminding them that the trees they are cutting today were not planted by them, but by those who came before," Maathai said. "So they must plant the trees that will benefit communities in the future."
Be the first to comment on this article!