Mild breezes and bird song swept across the grounds on Friday of Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills — perfect conditions for Arbor Day, a day set aside for people coming together to plant trees.
On a gentle slope at the north edge of campus, 11 volunteers — staff members, faculty, students and groundskeepers — waited for a mini excavator to bore a hole in the manicured turf.
One volunteer plopped a tagged oak sapling into the new hole, and the group came together in a circle to cover the tree’s root system with soil and mulch.
Having just finished smoothing the soil, Nathan Radloff, a freshman from Oak Lawn who learned about the effort from his biology professor, said he thought it would be fun to participate, while doing something good. “I think trees are good for providing oxygen and for animals to live in,” he said. “They’re important.”
Another volunteer, Jackie Sanders, works at Moraine’s mail center and bookstore. Prior to that she worked for a couple of years at a landscape company. “I love gardening and I love trees,” she said. “I know a little about planting trees and like to help.”
Faculty librarian Jill Davis said she got involved “because Moraine has such a beautiful campus and I thought it would be awesome to be a part of beautifying the grounds.”
Though trees do add beauty, this was more to the effort than meets the eye. Several MVCC employees recently surveyed about sustainability efforts needing attention at the college, noted trees as a top priority.
In recent years, the college found it necessary to remove 50 trees and had not replaced them. Among those lost were four maples and about 20 ash trees infested with emerald ash borers, said David Dammon, vice president of MVCC’s Administrative Services. “We’re replacing them with native trees.”
Besides the oak sapling, the volunteers planted a variety of trees including sweet gum, Kentucky coffee, catalpa, red bud, sugar berry, bald cypress, juniper and arborvitae.
Additional planting efforts were slated through the weekend for a total of 61 trees planted by Monday.
“This is the first stage of phase one repopulating our trees,” Dammon said. The activity is part of a broader effort to revive the college’s sustainability program, which was heavily impacted by by the pandemic and the loss of the college’s sustainability coordinator.
That renewed sustainability effort will include installation of LED lights in hallways, reduction of waste generated by contracted food services, a community garden, and tree-related education initiatives serving students and the surrounding community.
Dammon was able to obtain a grant from Trees Forever, an organization that assists with tree inventory, removal and planting. The college also contracted with TERRA Engineering to conduct a tree inventory, analyze tree and soil conditions, and generate a map showing each tree on campus.
Overall, 150 new native trees are planned for planting in phase one, along with another 210 trees in phase two.
While the second phase of trees will not be native, they will be suited for changing climate conditions in Illinois, Dammon said. “Our goal is to have finished planting 360 new trees by the end of 2028.”
Beyond repopulating the campus’s tree inventory, MVCC wants to upgrade its Level 1 Arboretum status granted by Morton Arboretum several years ago.
With Level One accreditation, an organization must have an arboretum plan, a governing group, a staff member or volunteer who manages the arboretum, a labeled collection of at least 20 trees and other woody plants, and an annual tree-related event that is open to the public.
“We’re looking to obtain level two status,” Dammon said. “The difference is adding an educational component for the community. We’ll work with the biology faculty on teaching about tree disease and identification.”
The Arbor Day volunteers planted trees in nine locations on the MVCC campus. One of those happened to be near the receiving and shipping office. Joining the crowd, Larry Bernier, lead clerk there, identified himself as “a spectator” and seemed pleased with the planting effort.
“It’s fantastic,” he said, standing near a picnic table. “People from the community used to come from the walking trail and sit down here when the old tree was here, but then the limbs were starting to come down so the tree had to come down.
“Trees are really good, but the right tree has to go in the right place.”
Susan DeGrane is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
