IU continues to restore campus canopy, receives donations for 500 trees

While waiting at a bus stop just across from the Indiana Memorial Union on Saturday, junior Sean O’Connell said he couldn’t help but notice how bright the sun was.

“It wasn’t always this bad,” he said. “But standing here now, there’s not really a way to avoid it.”

There used to be two trees at this stop, two shaded options O’Connell could pick from when he needed to hide from the summer sun.

Now all that remains are two sawed-down stumps.

IU lost hundreds of trees when a powerful line of storms swept through Bloomington in May.

But a recent flood of donations has given the University cause to be optimistic, Vice President for Capital Projects & Facilities Tom Morrison said.

“This really was a time of crisis for our trees,” Morrison said. “But things are starting to look up now.”

In 2009, IU Bloomington was named a Tree Campus USA University by the Arbor Day Foundation for the number of trees on campus, as well as the careful and dedicated upkeep of them.

That dedication continued in the storm’s wake, Campus Division Manager Mike Girvin said.

A massive cleanup effort began immediately following the storms.

Campus Division workers spent more than a month clearing away twigs, branches and damaged trees, he said.

Some of the trees were completely snapped. Some had been uprooted. Others still remained standing, but were twisted like corkscrews.

“We’re going to have truckload after truckload after truckload of brush and chips,” Girvin said when the cleanup began in May.

But even when the bulk of the debris had been removed — the entire cleanup will likely last all summer — the campus canopy was far from perfect.

Three hundred trees were now gone, and there was little money to replace them.

However, in June, former IU Trustee Stephen Ferguson and his wife, Connie, donated 150 trees to the University. More donations quickly followed.

“Their donation really kick started the effort,” Morrison said. “Now we’re able to not only replace the fallen trees but also grow the canopy.”

While Morrison does not have an exact monetary amount, he estimates enough funds have been raised through IU alumni and friends to plant 500 trees.

So far, though, just 50 of the trees have been planted, he said, as summer is not an ideal season for planting new trees.

The remaining nearly 450 trees will be planted in the fall.

“The generosity of IU alum has been incredible,” Morrison said. “We couldn’t be more grateful for their love for the campus and its treescape. We look forward to the fall when we can really start planting the trees in earnest.”