Winter 2024 15 BRANCH OUT Corvallis campus gains arboretum status. Dan Blanchard, M.S. ’23, has too many favorite green areas on campus to list in one breath. There’s the courtyard between Dearborn and Shepard Halls, where you can find astonishing magnolias. There’s lower campus, home to two blue atlas cedars planted in 1892. In fall, multiple species behind West Hall turn scarlet. “My passion is woody plants,” Blanchard says. He can handily reel off the names and ages of trees all over campus, like a sugar maple, pictured here, that dates back some 70 years. As a graduate student, he began mapping campus trees (some 8,000 of them).Thanks to his efforts — part of a project led by faculty member Ryan Contreras — the Corvallis campus is now accredited as a Level II arboretum. Take a tour at campusarb. oregonstate.edu. —Katherine Cusumano News PHOTO BY JAN SONNENMAIR
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