Secrest Arboretum plants 1,000th tree since tornado

Secrest Arboretum, which lost 1,600 trees to a tornado last year, recently dug in replacement No. 1,000 -- exactly one year later.
 

Shovels in hand, friends and officials of the Wooster facility planted a new tupelo tree in a short ceremony on Sept. 16.
Ken Cochran, the arboretum's program director, said the tree, an especially tall-growing variety, "will grow straight up -- a tower. It'll get knocked around by the wind."
 

"No thanks," joked Bill Ravlin, an associate director of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, the arboretum's home. "Been there. Done that." The OARDC campus itself suffered an estimated $25 million to $30 million in damage from the twister.
 

Some 200 tree seedlings -- dawn redwoods, katsura trees and umbrella magnolias -- were given away too. All were grown from seeds that came from trees that fell in the storm.
 

The program was part of a day of activities to celebrate the campus's recovery from the tornado and to dedicate an advanced new biosecure research facility.
 

Workers and volunteers continue to replant the arboretum, which saw about 30 of its 120 acres virtually leveled.
Details on the arboretum's tornado renewal fund are at http://go.osu.edu/Ex3.