Imagined Glassboro Mural: People and their Trees

About the Cultural Geographer

I am Beth Means, a freshman at Rowan University currently studying International Relations as part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. I am also part of the Bantivoglio Honors program here at the University. Although my studies are currently more focuses on human interactions with each other, I have always found myself being drawn to nature as well. For years I was involved in scouting, which included a large amount of camping trips. My family also enabled me to see the great beauty of nature from a young age with hiking trips and visits to places like the Appalachian Mountains. Being able to visit National Parks when I was younger also inspired me to consider being a Ranger for a while! While I didn’t follow that path, I still have sheer awe for nature.

When I arrived here at Glassboro, I knew the university had a connection to local trees, as the University’s emblem featured an oak leaf, as well as all of the freshman dorms being named after trees. I had even been struck by how there were the beauty of some of the trees throughout autumn, when beautiful foliage of red and yellow started to fall from the sky. Even individual trees caught my attention, such as a willow alone by the lake. Through the Cultural Geography class here, I learned that there were previous efforts to try and establish a Heritage Tree program. It only made sense, since there were trees that were obviously old and had significance to the local community. I became interested in this topic and decided to look more deeply into how trees had affected the local lives of Glassboro residents. 
 

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