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Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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First Place Winner in Tree Planting Competition

Jan. 5, 2015

Several college teams, including teams from The Ohio State University Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens competed on January 8, 2015 in Arlington, TX to see which college could plant trees the fastest and the best. As the first place winner, Ohio State Chadwick Arboretum will receive a monetary prize and trees for our campus. This tree planting competition was organized by the College Football Playoff committee as a way to offset the environmental impact of the first ever College Football Playoff National Championship. The tree planting competition was coordinated locally by Texas A&M Forest Service in College Station, TX, and the Texas Tree Foundation provided oversight in the competition.

OSU Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens Sends a Team to Plant Forward!

In addition to our accomplished, championship football Buckeyes, The Ohio State University Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens sent a team of tree planting Buckeyes to Arlington, TX on January 8th to compete in this parallel national championship. Teams of horticulturists from the final four universities (The Ohio State University, Oregon, Florida State, and Alabama) were invited to plant trees near the championship game site to offset some of the environmental impacts of the event. Ohio State was the only school of the final four that participated, showing our commitment to a greener world. Other teams from Tree Campus USA universities did participate.

The Chadwick Arboretum team included Mike Pfeiffer (Chadwick Arboretum Horticulturist), Christine Voise (Chadwick Arboretum GIS and Accessions Specialist), Dan Struve (Emeritus Professor of Horticulture and Chadwick Arboretum Volunteer), and Steve Schneider (OSU Landscape Planner and ISA Certified Arborist). Additionally, Christy Dudgeon (Horticulture Alumni and VP at Grass Groomers) and Mickael Boren (father of the 3 Boren Brothers who all play/played on the OSU Football team) joined us. Alumni from the Dallas/Fort Worth area also joined in the fun! Flying our Block O flag and our Tree Campus USA flag, we not only won the competition but we helped plant 100 oak trees which will be a lasting legacy of the event!

A special thanks goes to the OSU Office of Administration & Planning, Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, and a generous Chadwick Arboretum donor for paying forward in support of Team Buckeye. Go Buckeyes!

The Playoff Green program

Playoff Green was a way to identify the sustainability projects developed around the College Football Playoff National Championship. Colleges and universities, including The Ohio State University, have been leading the way across America in incorporating sustainability as a key part of the way they operate. The College Football Playoff committee applied the best of those practices and made them a key part of the way they organized and implemented the activities surrounding the National Championship game. Activities included:

  • Urban Forestry Projects including the first ever College Football Playoff Tree Planting Competition.
  • Solid Waste Recycling at the CFP venues.
  • Prepared Food Recovery from all events that serve food to fans.
  • Water Conservation Messaging to make fans aware of the critical water shortage in North Texas.
  • Material Repurposing to keep material out of landfills.
  • Renewable Energy/Travel Offsets. On game day, AT&T Stadium will be “green” powered through use of renewable energy certificates (RECs) provided by TerraPass. The RECs used at the championship game are being generated locally by wind farms in Texas. TerraPass is also offsetting the travel emissions for both teams traveling to North Texas for the championship game.