UC Sustainability Holds Events to Celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day

UC’s Office of Sustainability will be celebrating the 45th anniversary of Earth Day by sponsoring a seed packet giveaway from

10 a.m.-2 p.m., Wednesday, April 22, on McMicken Commons

. The giveaway will involve the distribution of 200 windowsill variety herb seed packets during

Student Government's Findlay Market pop up market on campus

.

Earth Day is a nationwide effort to increase awareness of our planet’s vital resources as well as recognize efforts to conserve and protect those resources.

UC's Office of Information Security is hosting a

free campus shred event on April 23 on McMicken Commons

. This is an opportunity for the UC community to securely destroy and recycle personal and professional documents.

UC’s Department of Biological Sciences will

kick off its annual plant sale on Earth Day, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., April 22-23, on Zimmer Plaza

(rain location: Rieveschl Hall, sixth floor).

Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April.

The Arbor Day Foundation

reports that Arbor Day was first held in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, and caught on through the nation’s schools in 1882.

UC’s Office of Sustainability is promoting Arbor Day through the UC community by holding a tree giveaway from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Friday, April 24, at the UC Bike Kitchen, attached to the Russell C. Myers Alumni Center at 2906 Woodside Dr. (the former kitchen space in the old Faculty Club building)

.The office will be giving away 200 saplings that are approximately 18-24 inches tall to the UC community. The event coincides with

Cincinnati's Taking Root initiative

, a collaborative, broad-based campaign to address the current historic loss of the region’s tree canopy by planting trees, better managing local forests, promoting the many benefits of healthy trees and fostering a sense of stewardship among individuals and communities. Recipients of the UC tree giveaway will be asked to register their sapling with Taking Root online. The White Oak, Scarlet Oak, Bald Cypress and Tulip Poplar saplings in the UC tree giveaway are native trees that are resistant to the Emerald Ash Borer and Asian Longhorn Beetle.

Leonard Thomas, UC project manager for planning, design and construction, says UC’s reforestation efforts have included the planting of more than 300 trees on the university’s Uptown and regional campuses during the past two years. “The university is committed to reforestation to combat the loss of tree canopy due to the infestation of the Emerald Ash Borer, which has decimated over 10 percent of the urban and suburban forest,” Thomas says.

For more information on the seed packet or tree giveaway, contact sustainability coordinator Morgan Billingsley, billinmr@mail.uc.edu.

This month, UC was recognized among the

Princeton Review’s guide to green colleges

for the sixth consecutive year.