New Paltz Receives An Out of This World Tree

On Sept. 23, at 4 p.m., SUNY New Paltz students, faculty and guests gathered on the south side of Science Hall for a celebration of the recently planted Artemis Moon Tree — the campus’s new astronautic tree — along with an unveiling of its new plaque. 

In 1971, the NASA Apollo 14 mission, the third to land on the moon, left Earth with some extra cargo. Alongside the astronauts, about 3,500 tree seeds made the journey to and around the moon, eventually returning home. The seeds were germinated and sent to a variety of voluntary locations across the world as a celebration of the United States’ bicentennial.

Inspired by the original mission, NASA decided to repeat the experiment in their 2022 Artemis I lunar mission, sending a new generation of seeds on the 270,000-mile journey. Just like the first experiment, the seeds were studied, germinated, grown and sent to an ongoing list of a lucky few applicants — SUNY New Paltz being one of them.

Physics and astronomy department Chair Amy Bartholomew was the driving force behind the college’s application. 

“I said, ‘I have to try to get one for SUNY New Paltz,’” Bartholomew said. “Our campus has strong programs in astronomy, biology, environmental science, engineering and we have a commitment to sustainability. We even have a tree committee on campus.”

Bartholomew submitted the application in the spring, and among a total of 1,300 applicants, New Paltz was selected as one of the first, receiving a regionally appropriate sweetgum tree.

“If you go to Wikipedia right now, there is a list of Artemis Moon trees, and there are two [distribution] sites on it: us and the U.S. Capitol building,” Bartholomew said, before clarifying that there are at least a dozen more trees distributed. 

The tree was planted on May 23, but celebrations were delayed to the fall so that students could attend. 

Nearly 100 people gathered to witness the tree’s plaque unveiling. SUNY New Paltz Provost William McClure kicked off the event with a brief introduction, and Bartholomew followed with a speech introducing and explaining the context and reasoning behind applying for the tree. 

“At first, the idea of a moon tree maybe seems a little bit gimmicky, but these are the kinds of studies that we need to do in order to understand how to send seeds to space so that we can feed future astronauts on long missions to the moon and to Mars,” Bartholomew said.

The plaque was unveiled to a resounding symphony of claps, and the rest of the celebration began. Astronomy professor Raj Pandya gave a visual demonstration of the path that Artemis I took around the moon with complimentary background visuals of geology professor Alexander Bartholomew setting off some bottle rockets. Moon Pies and half-moon cookies were also served alongside some refreshments. 

Amy Bartholomew hopes that the moon tree will lead to increased engagement in related scientific fields, just like how this tree caused her to learn more about seed science. 

“The hope is that this tangible, living connection to space exploration will also spark curiosity in the next generation of scientists, because, after all, they will be the ones leading future missions,” she said.