More than 120 Tyler Junior College students, employees and community volunteers recently gathered on the TJC main campus to plant trees in celebration of Arbor Day.
Hosted by the City of Tyler, the Tyler Trees Committee and TJC, the event included the addition of about 30 new trees to TJC’s landscape, replacing some that had been lost to last year’s freezing temperatures. Many of the downed oaks had lined TJC’s Fifth Street entrance for more than 80 years.
The new trees included an assortment of live oak, willow oak, white oak, red oak, bald cypress, cedar and elm.
Chris Kirby, district forester with the Texas Forest Service, observes as TJC students Preston Long of Fairfield (left) and Albertini Caporali of Center hoist a young tree into its new place during an Arbor Day event last week on the TJC main campus. Long and Caporali are members of TJC’s Alpha Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa.
Tyler Mayor Don Warren said the city’s parks have lost more than 100 trees in the past year.
“When you think about some of these trees being 40, 50, 60 years old and older, you realize we’ve lost a lot of history,” Warren said. “Years ago, we planted trees with my grandkids at Faulkner Park; and now, when we go there, we go back to the exact tree we planted. It’s fun to see how that tree has grown, and my grandkids consider it their tree. So, once you plant these trees today, remember to come back years from now and visit your tree.”
TJC student groups assisting with the event included: Alpha Omicron Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa; Apache Cheer; Black Students Association; TJC Student Senate; TJC Women’s Soccer.