To celebrate the 79th Arbor Day in 2024, Seoul National University held an Arbor Day event on April 4, 2024 in front of Bldg. 203.

 
 1. Introduction of Arbor Day Event

 Arbor Day is designated as a statutory holiday on April 5 every year and was established to create a pleasant living environment and promote the development of forest resources through tree planting.

It was established as a national holiday in 1949, one year after the establishment of the Republic of Korea, and will celebrate its 79th anniversary in 2024. Several national organizations, including the Korea Forest Service, are organizing events such as pet tree sharing and tree planting to improve people's access to trees and forests. Seoul National University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences also organizes annual Arbor Day events to raise awareness about trees.

The Seoul National University Arbor Day event in 2024 was a university-wide event that consisted of an opening ceremony, planting of pet trees, commemorative photos, and closing ceremony.

It was a significant event in that not only members of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, but also members of various colleges participated in the event.

In addition, unlike previous Arbor Day events, it was an experiential event where SNU members planted camellias themselves, which attracted the attention of many members.

SNU President Yoo Hongrim and Dean Jang Pansik of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences also participated in the Arbor Day event, emphasizing the importance of planting trees and asking for more interest in Arbor Day in the future.

 To find out the opinions of those who participated in the Arbor Day event, we interviewed Wee Seokbeom, a student in the College of Engineering. Due to the geographical location of the event, most of the participants were from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, but we wanted to hear about the feelings of those from other colleges who participated less.

Seokbeom was interested in planters and became involved in the event when he heard that they were giving away camellia seedlings at the Arbor Day celebration. Surprised by the large number of people at the Arbor Day event, Wee said he appreciated the significance of the event, which helps people remember the symbolism of Arbor Day, which is often overlooked.

Realizing the historical significance of Arbor Day, he discussed the importance of expanding the scale of the event so that all members of Seoul National University can reflect on the meaning of Arbor Day as carbon neutrality is one of the most important issues in today's society.

In this regard, Seokbeom expressed his regret that the Arbor Day event could not be publicized throughout Seoul National University.

He learned about the Arbor Day event through a member of the gardening club. Other colleges other than the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences had relatively little publicity, and they suggested that it would be good to publicize the Arbor Day event through various means such as emails to members. In the future, they would like to see Seoul National University members participate in Arbor Day events through effective publicity.

Finally, Seokbeom Wee expressed his hope that the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will continue to organize various events that can contribute to environmental protection and ecosystem conservation for all members of SNU based on the Arbor Day event.

 To learn more about the preparation and execution of the Arbor Day event, we interviewed Professor Kang, a forest environmental studies major at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Seoul National University, who is the head of the academic forest.

Every year, April 5 is designated as Arbor Day, a national statutory holiday, but the country has been holding tree planting events across the country for about two weeks before and after Arbor Day. In this context, SNU also held an Arbor Day event on April 4, a day before Arbor Day 2024, with SNU President Yoo, Vice President, President for Research, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Jang Pan-sik, faculty, staff, and students.

The planting of the pet tree, which was the most popular of the Arbor Day events, was newly organized to create an Arbor Day event for both faculty and students. The pet tree, a camellia sinensis, was prepared six years ago in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' academic forest.

The camellia was chosen as the pet tree for the planting event because it is associated with respect and gratitude and is suitable for growing indoors. On the day of the event, 400 camellias were prepared, along with extra trees of azaleas and blueberries, all of which were distributed about 20 minutes after the event started.

Professor Kang said that the event was able to run smoothly thanks to the hard work of the Academic Forest staff who prepared the camellias, and he hoped that everyone at Seoul National University would recognize their efforts. As Wee Seok-beom pointed out earlier, there was a regret that the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences organized the Arbor Day event, so the participation of members of other colleges was relatively weak.

Professor Kang said that in order to solve the above problems, he plans to create an Arbor Day event that can be evenly participated in by all members of SNU through a survey of participants in the future.

He also shared his plans to organize a similar event for the next Arbor Day event as the pet tree pot planting event received a great response from many members.

Professor Kang also gave advice on how to grow the camellias that were provided at the Arbor Day event.

The most essential elements for growing plants are sunlight and water. Indoor light is sufficient for growing camellias, and too much exposure to direct sunlight is detrimental to their growth. As for watering, it's recommended to do it once a week, although there's a slight margin of error depending on the amount of soil.

Finally, Prof. Kang Kyu-seok said that planting a tree is like a millennial gauge that looks into the future of a country for a thousand years beyond a matter of love, and that SNU students should look at a tree and treat the forest with pride, dignity, and an attitude of contributing to the future.

He also said that he hopes that through the Arbor Day event, students will recognize the importance of trees under climate change and become familiar with trees.