Cal Poly hosts tree planting ceremony to honor Arbor Day and celebrate Campus Urban Forest

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Cal Poly will host a tree planting ceremony on November 19 in San Luis Obispo.

This event is to honor a century-old arboreal commitment that has created the most-diverse urban campus forest in the nation.

During the Arbor Day event, three trees will be planted on North Poly View Drive, the inner campus loop near the western end of the Baker Center for Science and Mathematic and on the south side of Science North.

Since 2014, the university has been recognized as an Arbor Day Foundation Tree Campus USA.

Cal Poly hosts Arbor Day each fall because it is the most ideal time of the year to plant trees on the Central Coast.

The new trees will include a pair of eucalyptus trees. These trees will replace one that was lost during ground preparations for a building that is currently under construction.

In addition, a Cook pine tree will be dedicated to a Cal Poly alumni Jason Johns, who earned a master's in biological sciences in 2017.

The university is among 16 California colleges/universities and more than 380 other schools in the nation to carry the Tree Campus USA designation from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Cal Poly has the largest variety of tree species on a university campus in the nation.

Campus officials have inventoried 6,600 trees and nearly 550 varieties in the campus core alone.

The event will take place at 2 p.m.