Recently, the City of Eugene decided that it is going to donate hundreds of trees to make the environment cleaner and greener. The decision was inspired by the World Athletics Championship about to be held in Eugene in August, 2021. Eugene is expecting thousand of people who will be coming to Eugene just to watch this championship and in order to make up for the carbon footprints caused as a result of this event, Eugene has decided to give away baby sequoia trees for plantation.

The giveaway as held at the Alton Baker Park on Sunday and the people of Eugene showed up in huge numbers so that they can be part of this incredible initiative.

Gerry Moseley, the now retired professor of University of Oregon, took a total of 100 trees that he intends to plant them at different locations throughout his property. While talking to the reporters there he said,

“I’m excited as can be to find that they were still here, they weren’t all gone by now,”

Gerry also mentioned that he spent his childhood farming trees and hence, planting or gardening is not something that is entirely new to him. He explained his feeling to the reporters in the following words;

“The sight of them in the ground, I mean they are safe and hearty right now and I’m gonna keep them that way. So, get a good start that’s like having kids,”

Just like you might have guessed by the amounts of people that showed up that it was a special day for the city. And among those hundreds of people, was none other than the Manager of the Eugene Urban Forestry himself, Scott Altenhoff. Showing his pride and happiness, Scott said;

“It’s a dream come true for me. As a municipal arborist, my prime task is to connect people with trees and to get them to understand the benefits of trees.”

The people of Eugene were very well understanding and enthusiastic when it came to the benefits and the purpose of such initiative. Especially the elderly, who also understood that they might not live to see these trees grow or enjoy the benefits of this. Ron Tinsley, who is 72 years old, said;

” I am planting these understanding that I won’t see them grow, maybe about 10 to 15 feet but I think we owe it to future generations to replenish what we’ve lost,”

The city is also looking forward to collaborating with the local schools and colleges for this. In fact, the Lane Community College is already on board. Timothy Ingalsbee, who is currently an instructor at Lane Community College, said;

“50 years from now students will be welcomed into the campus with a gorgeous giant sequoia forest,”

Ingalsbee further said that they plan to plant about 100 sequoias within the next few months and will try to improve the environment for the wildlife through these efforts. According to him;

“There’s been an immense amount of clear cutting going on around the campus and so we lost a lot of forest to land speculators, ….so planting these giant sequoias will partly compensate for that.”

Sponsored Content