Contact: Patti Klein Lerner,
(818) 677-2130

Tree Planting Party Planned at CSUN for Earth Week

About 70 student, faculty and community volunteers are expected to gather between 8:30 a.m. and noon on Wednesday, April 26, for a party with a purpose‹planting trees. The public is invited.

A Gymnosperm Forest of 40 cone-bearing trees will be planted outside CSUN's Science I and II Buildings as part of an Earth Week celebration co-sponsored by the University Student Union and TreePeople, a non-profit group dedicated to planting trees.

"It's a long term goal for the College of Science and Math to have a wooded, shady landscape surrounding the building as an identifying feature," said Brian Houck, CSUN's Botanical Garden and Greenhouse Manager. "It's not only what we think is a valuable landscape offering shade but it's an educational tool for the students because we're focusing on gymnosperm plants."

The trees to be planted include magnolias, pines, yews, Japanese cryptomeria and michelias, of which Houck says "The fragrance is just out of this world, a fruity orangey sort of pineapple smell. During the still air, it will perfume the entire courtyard between the Science I and II buildings."

The trees will be planted in a three-acre site which already contains mature trees and a grove of redwoods planted three years ago with a grant from Christine Zoraster, widow of longtime CSUN Foundation Board of Directors member Albert Zoraster. Plans call for more trees to be planted later, along with ferns.

"If you imagine sort of the primeval redwood forest where you have the tall stately columns of trees and the high canopy and the understory of ferns, that sort of ancient look of a grove of forests is what we're after," Houck said.

A volunteer orientation is scheduled for 8:30 a.m., April 26 at the Science I and II buildings at CSUN on Lindley Avenue north of Nordhoff Street. Volunteers will be welcomed by Dr. Edward J. Carroll, Jr., dean of the College of Math and Science, and Jim Dole, chairman of the Biology Department.

TreePeople will provide tools and instructions on planting the trees, which were purchased with a grant from California ReLeaf, an organization dedicated to planting urban forests. CSUN officials paid for a sprinkler system, which has already been installed.

Everyone is invited to help put the trees into pre-dug holes and enjoy bagels, coffee and other refreshments, said Jeremy Sonenschein, a member of the Board of Directors of the University Student Union.

For more information, call Houck at (818) 677-3496 or Sonenschein at (818) 677-2491.