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Volunteers help plant 400 trees at both college campuses |
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Thursday, 15 April 2010 |
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By SAM VANDENBERG
Staff Writer
This academic year has been a very "green" one for students and student council members. This year the Student Administrative Council (SAC) set in action "Green Up!" The goal is to plant 400 trees on Niagara's campuses.
 Two volunteers have fun helping the environment . Photos by Sam Vandenberg
The students and school worked hard on getting the
funding for the trees. Mike Eybel, marketing manager for SAC, says, "We
raised the money through a eight- month fund-raising campaign including
face-to-face donations from staff and students, events and corporate
donations."
Planting 200 trees on each campus is not a small
feat, but with the help of close to 30 volunteers, the Welland campus
tree planting was done in less than 3 hours. Tyler Hore, executive
vice-president of SAC for the Welland campus, says, "Everything went
fast. The grounds crew was here early, which gave us a good head start."
"Trees are a huge factor in reversing global warming," says
Jordan Smith, a Pre-Media program. Smith says, "I live in residence, so
it was cool be able to see that many trees go in. Also in a couple of
years, the campus is going to be unreal."
According to
www.cleanairgardening.com, CO2 is one of the major contributing elements
to the greenhouse effect. Trees trap CO2 from the atmosphere and make
carbohydrates that are used for plant growth. They give us oxygen in
return. Mature trees can absorb roughly 48 pounds of CO2 a year. The
tree in turn releases enough oxygen to sustain two human beings.
Thanks
to SAC and their "Green Up!" plan, students at both campuses will be
able to enjoy cleaner air and a variety of trees just in time for the
summer weather.
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