Tree giveaways mark Earth Week celebration

The Environmental Management Association of IU will take part in two tree giveaway events this week in celebration of Earth Week.

The first event, organized by the city of Bloomington, will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at People’s Park on Kirkwood Avenue. The other event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

At the tree giveaway events, any attendee from IU and the Bloomington community can pick up a tree seedling with instructions on where to plant it and how to take care of it, said Julie Ramey, community relations manager for the Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department.

“The seedlings are about 12 to 14 inches tall and come in a plastic baggie so you can take them home and plant them,” she said. “I’m thinking there will be plenty to go around.”

Ramey said trees are the only renewable resource.

“The important thing is to have the right tree in the right place,” she said. “You have to be careful not to plant tall trees under power lines. Usually in a power line war, the power lines win.”

Three native species of trees will be offered at the events: white oak, black gum and flowering dogwood, said Frances Gary, chair of the Environmental Management Association.

The city of Bloomington, Michael Herbert, an alumnus member of the association and his father donated the trees, said Jenna Morrison, head of the special initiatives committee for the association.

The group decided to participate in two tree giveaway events in order to reach out to multiple groups in the Bloomington community, Morrison said.

“EMA is involved with numerous community outreach projects,” she said. “So it was important to the organization that we could give out trees to the Bloomington community at the People’s Park event on Tuesday as well as to the IU community at SPEA on Wednesday.”

At the Earth Day Celebration on Tuesday, companies such as General Motors, Sycamore Land Trust and Pizza X will set up booths to share information about eco-conscious ways of doing business, Ramey said. Information about carbon footprint reduction will also be available, she said.

“The focus of the celebration is to demonstrate the viability of green businesses and how easy and important it is for people to reduce their carbon footprint,” Ramey said.
A carbon footprint is a gauge of how much carbon one person, company or city uses in a given amount of time, said Michael Hamburger, associate dean of facilities and co-chair of the IU sustainability task force.

“There is very strong scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide may be a drastic cause of global warming,” he said. “Information at the event will provide new approaches to lower a person’s environmental impact.”