History and Archives

Fermilab will resume a tradition of Arbor Day tree planting on the site on Friday, April 30. At noon on Arbor Day, more than 200 trees and shrubs will be ready for planting around Sauk Circle in the Fermilab Village. All employees and visiting experimenters and their families are invited to join the planting project. Bring your own shovel. For those needing transportation to the village, taxi service will be in operation.

The 1976 plantings will enhance Sauk Circle, now being developed as a residential community for short-term research visitors at the site. Sauk Circle features the large white farm houses moved there from other parts of the site.

Arbor Day was first held at Fermilab in 1969 when the laboratory offices were housed in the Village. The first trees planted were those in the field east of the present Users Center. Several locations in the Village have fine stands of trees from those Arbor Days. The grove at the northeast corner of Sauk Boulevard and Batavia Road and the shrubs around the Village Barn are among these. The last Arbor Day in 1973 was held in the open space on the east side of the Aspen East complex.

Arbor Day is just one phase of Fermilab's continuing concern for the preservation of trees on the Laboratory site. This concern was brought into focus again recently by a poem sent to Director Robert R. Wilson lamenting the destruction of a tree during installation of a transformer at Site 50. Dr. Wilson's comments in response to the poem repeat the solicitude maintained by the Laboratory since its inception for the preservation of the natural beauty of the Fermilab site. Major readjustments have occurred several times in the plans for location of the scientific facilities to preserve a stand of native woods.

In a continuing program of planting on the 6,800 acre site, Fermilab has planted at least 40,000 trees and shrubs since 1969, according to Site Manager Rudy Dorner. About 15,000 of these are coniferous varieties; about 25,000 hardwoods. The plantings include windbreaks in the Village, plantings on the site boundary on Butterfield Road, plantings to reduce the use of snow fences, and screenings for the railroad siding area. In the past year, more planting was carried out around the Central Laboratory-Cross Gallery and at the base of the reflecting ponds.

The Fermilab site contains several stands of native trees, the largest of which is the "Big Woods," west of the Central Laboratory, which historical accounts report to be the reason many early settlers were attracted to this part of northern Illinois. The Big Woods originally extended north and west of Aurora. Until Batavia was named in 1840 it was referred to as "Head of the Big Woods."

Many of the trees in the Big Woods were precious black walnut. In 1969, a lumber thief cut down several of the old black walnut trees within the Laboratory boundaries and was preparing to haul them away when discovered by a Laboratory staff member. The trees were stored and, two years later, became the decorative panelling in the Auditorium proper and on the ceiling of the Auditorium lobby.

Everyone is welcome to join in carrying on Fermilab's Arbor Day tradition on Friday, April 30.