Annual Arbor Day Seedling Giveaway is April 21

April 15, 2018

     Ashland Community and Technical College is hosting the annual Arbor Day Seedling Giveaway on its main campus on April 21.
     The event will be in the front parking lot of the College Drive Campus from 9 a.m.-noon or until all seedlings are gone.
     ACTC is partnering with Kentucky Power and the City of Ashland to giveaway the free seedlings. Limited supplies of eastern redbud, hazelnut, grey dogwood and silky dogwood will be available from Kentucky Power. These low growth trees are great for landscaping and will not grow so tall that they interfere with overhead utility wires or structures.
     The city’s tree list is as follows: cypress, eastern redbud, hazelnut, pawpaw, sassafras, silky dogwood, persimmon, Chinese chestnut, Kentucky coffeetree, northern red oak, willow oak and Virginia pine.
     ACTC students and employees will assist in the distribution as a service learning project.
While this event is in celebration of National Arbor Day, ACTC is also celebrating its third annual Tree Campus USA recognition.
     “Ashland Community and Technical College is proud to be honored with a Tree Campus USA recognition for the third year in a row,” said Paul Seasor, director of maintenance and operations at the college. “Part of how we earn that recognition is by service learning projects like the tree giveaway. Other ways we meet Tree Campus requirements are maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan and dedicated annual expenditures for a campus tree program. We are thrilled to be partnering with Kentucky Power and the city on this year’s giveaway.”
     Seasor said an effort has been made to bring native species of trees back on campus, along with removing invasive species, which will help make the campus more eco-friendly and sustainable.
     “We are preserving what healthy trees we do have and when we remove an unhealthy tree, we replace it with a species that is better suited for our region, or is more disease resistant,” he said. “We are planning for the future by following our campus tree plan. This will assure we are looking toward the future of trees on campus.”