There was an Arbor Day event held at NEIU’s main campus in front of the BBH building in celebration of NEIU’S beautiful tree campus! The event consisted of a tour around campus for Arbor Day. The tour was led by Melinda Storie, a psychology professor at NEIU. The Geography and Environmental Studies- 308: Conservation Psychology class joined and offered all members of the NEIU community to join. The walking tour from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. had students admire the beautiful trees around NEIU’s campus.

Did you know that trees are the longest-living organisms on Earth? Trees can also reduce stress, provide water, provide a habitat and food for animals as well as reduce climate change.

The Arbor Day tour featured many awesome trees that NEIU’s Green Fee Committee keeps up with regularly. The three-dollar green fee in NEIU’s tuition helps to protect and preserve the upkeep of the trees on campus. The first tree in the tour is known as the Norway maple tree, this invasive tree can survive harsh soils and be used as a shade tree.

NEIU’s campus also features a big Apple tree which is one of the most popular trees on campus along with the Chinese White Poplar tree. Commonly known as Peking Poplar, the Popular tree is a species of tree in the family Salicaceae. It is found across northern and eastern China and has been introduced to the United States by the state of Louisiana as one of the largest trees.

The tour ended with a prize raffle for students. The prizes were NEIU higher education tree campus stickers, tree campus hats and pens. The tour was both informative and beautiful and displayed NEIU’s tree campus in an attentive manner.