Contact: Heath Fisackerly

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State will celebrate Arbor Day with a Feb. 21 planting ceremony and program focused on the many benefits trees provide.

Open to all, the annual observance has been coordinated since 2012 by the university’s Tree Campus USA Advisory Committee.

This year’s event begins at 10:30 a.m. just east of the Mississippi Horse Park; specifically, near the southernmost bridge on Hail State Boulevard and close to the Poor House Road intersection.

Following brief presentations by university administrators, four species native to the Magnolia State will be planted by students in the MSU student chapter of the Society of American Foresters, along with Waldorf scholarship recipients.

The first documented arbor-related celebration took place in the late 1500s in Spain. The first American Arbor Day was held in 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska. In Mississippi, the holiday is celebrated in February, the best time for tree planting in the Magnolia State.

As a campus with more than 10,000 trees on 1,500 acres, MSU has been recognized as a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation for the last five consecutive years.

Marc Measells, forestry department extension associate, is among coordinators of the 2018 MSU program. For additional information, contact him at 662-325-3550 or mkm2@msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university available online at www.msstate.edu.