In honor of a Cornell Cares, several members from the Cornell Club of Southern Arizona volunteered in a tree planting service project on Saturday, March 8, 2025, as part of a larger initiative urban forestry program called Trees for Tucson. The event was coordinated by the staff of Tucson Clean & Beautiful, and they provided the tools, gloves, trees, and mulch. As part of the crew of fifty volunteers, we were divided into smaller teams and assigned three planting sites in the neighborhood. The goal was to plant a total of 122 small trees in 2 hours and we are happy to report – mission accomplished! We dug the holes, planted the native trees, (typically Desert Ironwood or Desert Willow) which had been delivered to each site the previous day, watered the trees, and then arranging a berm around the tree base so the residents could take over watering the trees in the coming months. It was a great service project, and we look forward to participating again next year with the goal of attracting more families and/or younger Cornell alumni from the Tucson area.
Photo credit: Jamie Cabrales, Tucson Clean & Beautiful