University News

WIU Commemorates Arbor Day 2026 with Tree Planting

April 20, 2026

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MACOMB, IL — Western Illinois University will commemorate Arbor Day 2026 by planting a pin oak tree at 1:30 p.m. Friday, April 24 on the south lawn of Sherman Hall.

Within Facilities Management, WIU's landscape maintenance department maintains more than 2,700 trees on the Macomb campus. Each fall and spring, as part of WIU's volunteer campus beautification program, We Care, trees are planted and mulching is completed around existing trees.

Additionally, WIU Urban Forestry Management students lead tree plantings with elementary schools throughout western Illinois. This tradition was started in 1993 by WIU Forestry Professor Tom Green. Each spring, two trees are also planted on WIU's Macomb campus to honor employees and students who have passed away.

According to WIU English Professor Emeritus and Historian John Hallwas, the WIU campus was originally designed by landscape architect Thomas Hawkes of Chicago. Between 1903 and 1905, noted horticulturalist John Van Ness Standish selected and supervised the planting of approximately 500 trees.

A complete WIU tree inventory can be found at gis.wiu.edu/js/wiutrees.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing