You might have heard…

That The Ohio State University’s football team won the national championship this year. (Pete and I finally watched both games, courtesy of YouTube. We don’t have cable, so we ended up listening to the Sugar Bowl and the championship games on the radio. The Alabama game, we both agreed, was the more exciting. But I must admit that watching a game you know the outcome, with all the commercials edited, was pretty sweet!)

So what does this have to do with trees and the Arboretum?

Well, Ohio State’s Chadwick Arboretum Tree Planting team took home a win of its own in Arlington, TX. Horticulturists from Ohio State, Oregon, Florida State, and Alabama competed to see which team could plant the most trees, with the Ohio State team winning first place. The tree planting, which took place at a new park, was part of The Playoff Green program, a group of sustainability projects developed around the college football playoffs. The program is meant to help offset the environmental impact in Arlington of hosting the college football championship.

Apparently, before they left for Texas, the Ohio State team was featured planting a tree in under 60 seconds on Channel 10. (I searched for a video to embed with no luck…)

Here is a photo of the tree planting team. From the left: Mike Boren (father of the 3 Boren Brothers who all play/played on the OSU football team); Christine Voise (Chadwick Arboretum GIS and Accessions Specialist); Mitch Gatewood (OSU Alumni from DFW area); Mike Pfeiffer (Chadwick Arboretum Horticulturist); Ray Kreutzfeld (OSU Alumni from DFW area); Christy Dudgeon (OSU Alumni and VP of Grass Groomers); Steve Schneider (OSU Landscape Planner and ISA Certified Arborist); and our own Dan Struve (Emeritus Professor of Horticulture and Chadwick Arboretum Volunteer).

All I can say is, we could sure use a team like that for LOUA when we are planting trees!

Congratulations on both Ohio State wins!

Until next time!