Popular San Juan College tree seedling giveaway event returns this weekend

Editor's note: This article was updated April 23 to reflect a correction in the date of the giveaway, which was incorrectly noted in the first published version. The giveaway is scheduled for Friday, April 26.

If you are one of the thousands of local residents who have taken advantage of the Arbor Day Tree Giveaway that San Juan College has held for the past several years, chances are, you’ve had a conversation with Aiessa Thomas, the school’s arborist and ground maintenance supervisor who helps run the popular annual event.

Thomas and other experts will be on hand at this year’s giveaway this weekend to advise those who take home a tree on how to plant and care for the seedlings to give them their best chance of survival. Thomas said that while the giveaway only lasts a few hours each year, it always tests her vocal powers to the limit.

“I lose my voice by the end of it,” she said, smiling. “But we’re here to answer questions, and if we don’t have a resource for them, we find it for people.”

The Arbor Day Tree Giveaway, now in its sixth year, will begin at 8 a.m. Friday, April 26 outside the college greenhouse on the north end of the campus at 4601 College Blvd. in Farmington. The greenhouse is located adjacent to the San Juan College Cultural Center, which has been converted this semester to a student health center and is just south of the school’s soccer field. Those who attend the event are advised to park in lot F.

This year, approximately 1,000 seedlings will be up for grabs with a limit of one per household — twice as many as were available last year. College officials are hoping to be able to provide a seedling to everyone who shows up this year and avoiding disappointing late arrivals, as has happened in the past.

“Yep, they’re all gone,” Thomas said of the way things have gone previously, noting the entire supply of seedlings typically is exhausted within a few hours.

She said six to seven kinds of seedlings will be available this year, including piñon, desert willow and a handful of oak varieties. She said the latter species is one that is hardy and tends to thrive in many conditions.

“Oaks have been our staple,” she said. “They’re a good shade tree. They don’t take a ton of water, and they can live anywhere from the middle of a lawn to a Xeriscaping situation.”

Thomas and her staff collect the seeds from trees on the college campus whenever possible, although some of this year’s seeds were sourced from the Brigham Young University campus in Provo, Utah, which she described as a similar environment to that of San Juan County.

The giveaway is conducted on a first-come, first-served basis, and Thomas acknowledged that the larger seedlings are the ones that tend to be selected first. But a seedling’s size doesn’t necessarily reflect its chances of survival, she noted.

“They’re all really the same,” she said. “ … As long as they’re green and healthy, it’s all pretty much the same.”

The seedlings are housed in planters made of recycled newspaper to minimize the amount of plastic waste that goes back into the environment, Thomas said.

Thomas said she hears often from folks who have taken home a tree in the past and watched it grow. Some of those seedlings that were taken home during the first event five years ago are very well established now, she said.

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“We actually have one tree in front of the (campus) bookstore that is 9 or 10 feet tall,” she said, adding that she has heard from various other people whose trees are anywhere from 6 to 12 feet tall.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Tree giveaway will begin at 8 a.m. Friday on San Juan College campus