News Releases


April 9, 2010
For Immediate Release
For additional information: 
Barbara Kerr, APR
Executive Director of
Communications and Marketing
Telephone: 360-992-2921
Email: bkerr@clark.edu

 

 

The Future is Green at Clark College

As it seeks a Tree Campus USA designation, 
Clark College hosts a 2010 Arbor Day event 
with the planting of an evergreen magnolia tree 
near the college’s music building

 


VANCOUVER, Wash. – In support of Vancouver’s month-long celebration of trees, Clark College will host an Arbor Day event on Wednesday, April 14 at 1 p.m.

President Robert K. Knight will join Brighton West from Friends of Trees, the partner organization providing the tree which will be planted at the college’s main campus on the north side of the music building.   City of Vancouver Urban Forester Charles Ray will also speak.

The event is free and open to the public. Clark College is located at 1933 Fort Vancouver Way, Vancouver.  Driving directions and parking maps are available at www.clark.edu/maps

With a long history of supporting Arbor Day efforts, the college is take steps to earn a Tree Campus USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation.   The Tree Campus USA program recognizes excellence in campus tree management, as well as student and community involvement. Information about the program can be found at http://www.arborday.org/programs/treecampususa/index.cfm.

Tim Carper, a student who also works in Clark’s horticulture department, is among those leading Clark’s efforts to be named a Tree Campus USA.  According to Carper, “The tree that will be planted at Clark College for Arbor Day is an evergreen magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora ‘Edith Bogue’), which will increase the diversity of our campus arboretum.”   

About the Magnolia grandiflora “Edith Bogue”

The Magnolia grandiflora “Edith Bogue” variety is a hardy Southern Magnolia, producing large (eight inches long) glossy dark green leaves with hairy, rust-colored undersides.  Its flowers are creamy white and fragrant from late spring to mid-summer with some flowers reaching 10 inches in diameter.  The beauty of the leaves provide year-round interest and shade, and the flowers give off a beautiful fragrance in the heat of summer.

Arbor Day and Earth Day at Clark College

Cherry branches at Clark College

On Arbor Day 1990, Arbor Day and Earth Day have special meaning at Clark College.  Clark College alumnus Denis Hayes was the national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970.

John Kageyama, President of America Kotobuki, presented a gift of 100 Shirofugen cherry trees to the City of Vancouver to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Washington’s statehood.  Kageyama was joined by then Vancouver Mayor Bruce Hagensen and Washington Governor Booth Garden as the trees were dedicated on Clark College’s main campus in Vancouver’s Central Park.  

The 20th anniversary of that gift will be celebrated during the college’s 2010 Sakura Festival on Thursday, April 22.  The festival will also honor another international gift of friendship -- groundbreaking for a Japanese garden at the college. The garden is a gift from Chihiro Kanagawa, President & CEO of Shin-Etsu Chemical Company, the parent company of SEH America, to the City of Vancouver. 

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