ODU Joins Forces with Elizabeth River Project for Tree Plantings on Campus

Come spring, the Old Dominion campus will be greener in places, thanks to the planting of more than 70 trees in December.

Fifty of the saplings, donated to the university as a result of a grant received by the Elizabeth River Project (ERP) and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, were fringe trees (Chionanthus virginicus), and all of the species are native to Virginia.

Other trees included seven wax myrtles, five eastern red cedars, four loblolly pines, three white oaks, two each of black tupelos, live oaks and tulip poplars, and one bald cypress.

Chad Peevy, ODU grounds supervisor, led a crew that planted 19 trees on Monday, Dec. 20, near the retention ponds on East 47th Street.

"It was a joint project with the city of Norfolk, because that land is a joint management area," Peevy explained. "I formed a co-operative with Richard Wernicke, city forester for Norfolk; we did half and they did half. The Elizabeth River Project provided the trees and Dominion Virginia Power removed the old ones. So this really involved four different entities and was a good project of joint cooperation."

Also in December, the ODU grounds crew and a landscape contractor planted trees elsewhere on campus, including the Powhatan Apartments complex, which received 15 new trees, and along 49th, 48th and 43rd streets, as well as Bluestone Avenue.

This was actually the second round of planting trees donated as part of the grant, Peevy said; 29 trees were planted last spring.

Pam Boatwright, assistant director for finance and administration and River Stars program manager for the Elizabeth River Project, said the tree planting project, which was ERP's portion of the grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, was designed to support the Lafayette River Watershed.