Ohio State is an urban campus 364 days a year. But Arbor Day encourages students to look past the graffitied dumpsters overflowing with trash and walk beyond the cracked sidewalks to appreciate the trees.

At 10 a.m. today, OSU President E. Gordon Gee will dedicate an oak tree on the Oval outside Bricker Hall. This marks the first time OSU’s Chadwick Arboretum celebrates Arbor Day by planting a tree somewhere other than its own gardens.

“Trees are what bring the sacredness to the Oval,” said Chadwick
Director Mary Maloney.

Arbor Day has promoted the planting and caring of trees since 1872. In 2005, Ohio’s 38,479 National Arbor Day Foundation members planted 338,529 trees. Ohio leads the nation in the number of certified Tree City USA communities, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

After Gee speaks today, OSU horticulture specialist Jim Chatfield will talk about why trees matter.

“The more trees with the more canopy, the better the urban environment,” said Drew Todd, Ohio’s urban forestry coordinator.

Trees improve air quality, enhance property values and have a calming effect, Todd said. Cars even drive slower on streets with trees than on streets without them.

“They also conserve energy through shading and shelter buildings by screening winds so you don’t have to cool so much in the summer or heat so much in the winter,” he said.

Arbor Day is a way to locally recognize those benefits. Although few OSU students have the space or the permission to plant trees, they can get involved in a community tree planning event or join the Arbor Day Foundation, said Foundation Public Relations Manager Mark Derowitsch.

“It costs $10 to join and you get 10 free trees,” he said. “We recommend trees for your area and ship you ten seedlings of your choice.”

Students without the space can donate their trees to be planted in a national forest.

Those who want simply to experience trees and other foliage can leave the central campus grayness for the greenery just across the Olentangy River.

The majority of OSU students don’t even know about the beautiful oasis that is the Chadwick Arboretum and Learning Gardens, let alone how they can take part.

“We have about 300 volunteers,” said Jenny Pope, Chadwick education and volunteer coordinator. “But sadly, only five are students.”

Students who want to get involved can apply online at chadwickarboretum.osu.edu/volunteering, she said.

Chadwick’s planting force of mostly OSU faculty and staff took over the university’s contract for plantings in road medians and campus gardens. But in late May, it will be replacing the tulips with annuals such as impatiens and snapdragons.

“We need a lot of help with that,” Pope said. “It’s a great way to start volunteering because it’s just a one- or two-day thing.”

The presence of Chadwick Arboretum in the 15th-biggest city in the country is special.

“In addition to students we have 40,000 university workers,” Maloney said. “But we don’t have mountains or oceans here, so Chadwick is a visual respite from the concrete jungle.”

It even has a 4-acre lake west of the Schottenstein Center with 1,000 trees native to Ohio.

“Everyone knows about Mirror Lake and nobody knows about ours,” Maloney said.

The Chadwick Arboretum is a branch of the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science rooted in the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences. The 60-acre green reserve consists of 17 gardens and 2,000 different plants from around the world.

Dotted with benches, educational plaques and walking paths, “it is a place you celebrate, grieve, find romance and gather your thoughts,” Maloney said.

Although it is just off the corner of Olentangy River Road and Lane Avenue, its mostly herbaceous learning gardens are not frequented by students.

“I don’t want this to be a hidden gem on campus,” Maloney said. “We hope that traffic picks up once the landscape comes out of dormancy and shows its spring colors.”

As of Arbor Day, just nine of the arboretum’s flower-types have reached full bloom, according to OSU’s Phenology Garden Network website.

Named after horticulture professor Lewis Chadwick, it was built in 1981 with just 14 acres. Today, it serves as an outdoor teaching laboratory for all kinds of students from landscape horticulture to environmental engineering, Maloney said.

Despite its practical uses and tranquil beauty, Chadwick raises all of its funds. The university only pays part of the salary of some of its workers.

“We buy every petunia and every lawnmower,” Maloney said. “But we want to be a part of the entire campus, not just a part of horticulture.”

Ohio’s forested acreage grew from 12 percent in 1940 to more than 30 percent today, according to Ohio’s Department of Natural Resources. And although arboresque interest has reached the tree-tops statewide, it’s still at Chadwick’s trunk.

“We’re gaining momentum but we need everyone’s help, including students,” Maloney said.

OSU’s class of 2010 will make one big step in the green direction. Its class gift to the university will be a rain garden to reduce the storm water runoff into drains and rivers that causes erosion and pollution.

“It’s unprecedented,” Maloney said. “They’re not giving a stone bench or a fire pit”

Chadwick sees the most students at the plant sale, auction and gardening fair. From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, May 7, and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 8, growers from around the state provide unusual, beautiful plants.

Chadwick sells more than 10,000 plants during this annual fundraiser, Maloney said.

Free parking for the event and for the arboretum and gardens is at the southwest corner of Lane Avenue and Fyffe Road.

Guided tours of the gardens are available for groups at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from May 15 through October 1. Evening tours are available at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, but the arboretum is open anytime the outdoors are.