Talking trees connect students to nature
Do trees have different personalities? The Talking Trees Project at USU says they do, and through this project, students have the opportunity to get to know 13 different trees around campus.
Each tree has a phone number linked to it so students can text and hold a conversation with them. There is also a wishing tree that allows students to leave their wishes as notes for the tree. The talking tree’s website has a map that students can use to find the trees.
Rayna Becker, coordinator for the project, said its inspiration came from another university’s project.
“The Talking Trees Project is based on a research project from a university in Canada,” Becker said. “Miles Becker, the USU Extension urban forester, found the project and wanted to try it here. We did change the program a little bit because we really wanted to create a personality for each of these trees, and they didn’t talk too much about doing that in their research project.”
Becker said part of the motivation behind this program was to find ways to help people connect with nature.
“Me, Miles and quite a few of the people involved are just really passionate about the trees on campus and trees in general, and we think they add a lot of value to the community,” Becker said. “We just wanted to create a reason for people to stop and interact with the trees a little more and to recognize these amazing species and trees that we have on campus.”
Becker said they felt this program would be a fun way to help students engage with the trees on campus.
“I think Miles was looking for anything that would be a fun way that we could educate the campus population. He really was the catalyst for it, and he just invited me to come help with some of the organization,” Becker said. “I think we both just really liked the idea of giving the campus community a change to connect with some of the really awesome trees. We have so many super old trees, unique trees and state champion big trees.”
Sariah Wallis, an intern for the project, said this program is important because it can help people realize how important nature is.
“I think giving personality to these trees really allows us to connect with them and to start paying attention to what’s happening around us with trees, shrubs and different plants. It helps get us more connected to issues like deforestation and different things like that,” Wallis said. “If we care about these trees, we’re going to care about these bigger problems that our generation are facing currently. I hope that what people learn from this project is that these plants are important and we need to take care of these plants. We can’t just ignore them because if we do, some future generations aren’t going to have the same opportunities that we have.”
Phil Swede, who is also an intern for the project, said this program is important because it helps people remember to get outside and “touch grass.”
“We’re just getting people to think more about the world around them,” Swede said. “These days social media and the attention economy is designed to take us away from things like trees and the world around us. This is a small way to get people to think about that sort of stuff, to get people to think ‘Oh, hey, these trees are worth protecting.’”
Wallis said her favorite part of the project was the wishing tree.
“I manage Coaster, the wishing tree outside of the Natural Resources Building,” Wallis said. ”It’s really wholesome to see what people are hoping for and are trying to achieve. I love to read up on it and see what everyone’s up to.”
Wallis said she hopes they are able to continue the project in the future.
“I definitely would love to do this again,” Wallis said. “We’re hoping to do it more years down the road, but we’re also thinking that it would be cool if we could get not just this campus involved but also people from the community outside of just USU to get involved.”