April is a month of environmental happenings, from Earth Day to Arbor Day, and all the spring maintenance in between. It's a busy time for people who love the planet. Fayetteville Urban Forester John Scott is one person who is especially busy right now. He recently joined Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio One to talk about the invasive plant bounty, and he returned this week to discuss the city's new packaging of a bunch of returning events. Scott says they're calling April 18-25 Earth Week, and it's an update from last year's tree week.
John Scott: I had five or seven days worth of events, and I did that one kind of by myself, and I wanted to expand that. So I set a meeting up with other people at work who were involved in environmental and sustainability efforts, and we came up with Earth Week. It's a way we wanted to celebrate and promote Earth Day — National Arbor Day, which is April 24, and Earth Day, which is April 22 — and environmental stewardship in Fayetteville by hosting a series of fun events and activities that encourage people to participate. We wanted to raise awareness about sustainability and support initiatives such as tree planting, waste reduction and habitat restoration. We also want to serve as a central hub for our local environmental events around Earth Day, because there's a lot going on and it's a good way for us to collaborate with residents, schools, nonprofits and other organizations. We're kind of hoping this has a lasting positive impact.
Travis: You want to highlight some of those events? You have a wide range of things going on.
Scott: We do. It starts on Friday, April 17, and it continues until Saturday, April 25. We have a tree giveaway starting on Saturday at the Farmers Market, and there's a big cleanup going on simultaneously. And then there's a presentation at the library. Sunday is kind of an Earth Day pledge — an Earth Day at home kind of thing. There's a pledge on the website, and the Interfaith Climate Alliance is giving away native trees from 10 to noon at St. Paul's and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. And then on Monday, I'm going to bring back Talking to the Trees. It's a program I had last year where you go up and scan a QR code on a tree around town and you can send an email to it. There were some really wonderful emails that were sent. I had fun responding to them. I'm glad to have that one back.
Travis: Yeah, I remember that. I remember people really enjoyed doing that.
Scott: I enjoyed answering those. That was a lot of fun. And then Tuesday we're going to have three days at the library — we're showing documentaries from about 6 to 8, and we'll have panels. So Tuesday we're going to have some documentaries at the library. On Wednesday we're going to have a big panel on Earth Day, which I'm kind of excited about. We're bringing in all city staff that have environmental programs and sustainable initiatives, and we're going to let them talk about each one of them. We do a lot in the city for sustainability and the environment, but some of it doesn't get spotlighted or celebrated because it's not flashy. We want to bring everybody in and showcase what we're doing as a whole for the city, because we do some great stuff that doesn't get celebrated. So that's actually on Earth Day, and that'll be at the library.
Travis: Nice. I know that KUAF listeners are very cognizant of their environment here in Fayetteville, so I'm sure there will be people excited to learn about that.
Scott: I'm excited to share that. It's working with the city — there are a lot of different departments, and I don't even know what some of these folks are doing. I was speaking with somebody in IT and they were telling me they've been doing e-waste and computer recycling for the environment for about 13 years, and I had no idea. There are departments you wouldn't think of, like IT and GIS, that are doing good work for the environment, and we want to showcase stuff like that. We're also having on Earth Day a bike-to-work or school event. We're going to have a little energizer station — that's kind of what we're calling it — at the Upper Ramble, off Dixon, where you can get some coffee and maybe some breakfast snacks. There might be another location. We'll have more details. And then also for people who live on the west side, the Boys & Girls Club on Earth Day is having a fair and cleanup from 4:30 to 6:30. So you don't have to participate downtown — there's a little bit going on elsewhere in town. And then that Saturday will be the wrap-up for the whole week. There's a Lake Fayetteville spring cleanup, a compost give-back, and I think the Botanical Garden is also having events that week, including their big plant sale from 9 to 2, which is a pretty good event. They sell a lot of good natives.
Travis: And there will also be a day on which we get to see the winners of the invasive plant bounty photo contest.
Scott: That will be on Friday, which is Arbor Day — April 24. We'll do a little presentation for those winners. We'll give more details as we have those.
Travis: Nice, exciting stuff. So there's a theme for this Earth Week — it's "Our Power, Our Planet." And it seems like there's going to be an event related to that theme called Fayetteville Flips the Switch. Can you tell me about that?
Scott: I know just a little bit. We'll be giving more details and making announcements on that, but it's a new solar array that we have going online — I believe that's the reason we're doing the flip the switch. But we'll have more details to come.
Travis: Very cool. Stay tuned to hear more about that. As we're approaching this time of environmental stewardship — it's green outside again, it's getting warm, people are getting outside — what's on your mind? You were just telling me you're busy this time of year. What's keeping you going?
Scott: I've got a lot of programs going on that are really keeping me on my toes. I just finished with the Invasive Bounty program and the Amazing Tree program — we'll do a plaque and unveiling on that Monday during Earth Week. And there's a lot of organization that goes into these events. When I'm out, I've been doing a little bit of hiking. I went out to Lincoln Lake for the first time — I've lived here forever and never been to Lincoln Lake, but I love it. I've been trying to do a little bit of hiking. I do have a Hiking with the Forester event coming up on April 4. We're going to be hiking around Lake Fayetteville. I'm hoping the dogwoods are still really in bloom because I kind of placed the location of that hike where I knew there were a lot of dogwoods — some really good photo ops, too. It's a unique little hike on a trail that most people don't know about or use at Lake Fayetteville, so I'm kind of excited to share that with people. Just being outdoors is keeping me going.
Travis: Why do you love the outdoors? Why do you love trees?
Scott: I think they give back more than what we take from them. They just give me life — they're life for all of us around here. We're getting oxygen from them, so that's very core to our existence. But if you take a closer look at the trees, you'll find out there's a world within each one of them. There's so much going on with each one of them at different times of year — with insects and wildlife, or even the plants themselves. I find them fascinating and amazing, with all the stuff that they have going on. And there's stuff that we don't even know yet about trees. We've just learned within the last 20 or 30 years that they're talking and communicating. So what else are we going to discover? I can't wait to hear what's next when it comes to trees.
That was Fayetteville Urban Forester John Scott speaking with Ozarks at Large's Jack Travis. You can visit kuaf.com or fayetteville-ar.gov for a full schedule of events and more details about each.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
