This will be the twenty-first year that OU celebrates Arbor Day. While the university has only celebrated the holiday since 1997, tree planting is a long-standing tradition among sooners.
David Ross Boyd, the first OU president, used his own wages to buy seeds and saplings to plant on campus, according to sooner magazine. Few (if any) of Boyd’s trees remain standing today, but his passion for planting trees is still present in the university culture.
“The trees that we plant are proven Oklahoma trees. They hold up to the harsh seasonal elements that we encounter in Oklahoma,” said Allen King, director of Landscape and Grounds at OU. King and other OU students and staff have planted over 20,000 trees since David Boren has been president of the university.
“I really enjoyed the relationship building that happened on Arbor Day,” said Mason Marshall, OU advertising sophomore. Marshall participated in the 2017 Arbor Day celebration by planting saplings with members of her sorority.
OU will celebrate Arbor Day on March 29th at Burr Park this year. With the trees planted at Arbor Day celebrations this year, OU students will have helped to plant 1,350 trees on Arbor Days since 1997.
