Even before she helped plant 30 native trees at the Brown Family Environmental Center’s Hall Farm on Friday, Gwyn Kelley ’25 was already thinking about the future of all those buckeyes, maples, oaks and fruit-bearing trees.
“Planting trees is planting for the next generation, so I think it’d be really cool to come back in 10 years and see the hill with all the things we planted,” she said. “Our hope is that you can come to this in any season and there’s something blooming — that in the summer, you can get paw paws or serviceberries.”
The planting project over the weekend drew more than 100 shovel-carrying, mulch-spreading students to the BFEC and Mavec Field, where another 30 trees — mostly Norway spruces, eastern red cedars and eastern white pines — found a new home on Saturday.
It was all part of an extended celebration of the College’s bicentennial. Kelley, a member of Student Council’s buildings, grounds and sustainability committee, led the effort with committee chair Abby Warshauer ’27; funding was provided by the Bicentennial Advisory Committee.
The Georgia natives, who resolved to undertake the project while working together last summer at a nonprofit called Trees Atlanta, called the initiative a uniquely Kenyon way to celebrate the College, which turned 200 in 2024.
“When you’re walking down Middle Path and all the trees that line it, there’s very much this symbolic and spiritual connection of these trees holding the energy of campus,” Kelley said. “So we just want to bolster that relationship with the trees and the environment.”
Planting trees also helps sustain the College’s rural character and dovetails with other efforts to protect Kenyon’s sense of place, like the Philander Chase Conservancy land trust, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, said Warshauer, an international studies major.
“It’s important to us that the environment surrounding Kenyon remains forested or farmland or that it’s conserved,” she said. “I love the idea of watching these trees grow. Now we’re in our 201st year watching them grow through time with the Kenyon community.”
To pull off their plan to plant 60 trees, the students partnered with multiple Knox County nurseries. For Kelley, a psychology major who hopes to pursue a career in urban forestry, it was a great opportunity to gain some valuable practical experience.
“This has been a really good lesson in learning how to take an idea and make it happen,” she said. “I see it as a way of giving Kenyon a gift, but also it’s really something I want to do professionally.”
Dean of Students Brian Janssen, who co-chairs the Bicentennial Advisory Committee, said the students’ leadership and ingenuity has been impressive.
“Their enthusiasm is infectious, and it has led to this opportunity for our campus to have a meaningful service project,” he said. “Kenyon has always been a place where the environment plays an important role, so it fits with what Kenyon is.”
At the BFEC, the new bicentennial grove on the north side of the Hall Farm property will be nurtured by a staff that includes land manager/naturalist Shane McGuire. The trees by the athletics field will be cared for by the College grounds crew, led by Corey Hitchman, and will feature two long cherry benches handmade by Tim Englert ’84.
