Noah Moon and Logan Goswick started gardening during the COVID-19 lockdown, and are now board members of the Gardens at ASU club. While they have enjoyed this hobby for years, they have also noticed green spaces vanishing from campus.
Over the past school year, ASU has had to remove trees and shut down green spaces on several of its campuses due to concerns about plant health. Whether for heat protection, community or mental benefits, students still find these areas valuable and worth preserving.
Less trees and gardens
Moon, a junior studying Earth and environmental sciences and the plot manager for Gardens at ASU, said he has noticed green spaces around campus diminishing.
Over the past two years, Moon has seen a garden outside of a chapel on the Tempe campus be paved over and seen the field outside of Old Main get renovated.
"They had a bunch of big trees that got cut over and I think it's very clear that decision was used primarily for making the college look better, for having more event space at fairs," Moon said. "But it is one of those trade-offs where a large amount of big trees that took a long time to grow got cut down, and were not replanted anywhere, which I feel is a shame."
Byron Sampson is one of two landscape architects at ASU. He said heat, old age and disease have been killing trees around campus.
"We've had over 100 days of 100-plus degree temperatures … But the nighttime temperatures don't fall below back to a normal temperature – normal for a summer in Arizona," Sampson said. "And so what happens is the trees are constantly transpiring, they're constantly losing moisture. That makes them susceptible to harm and disease."
For example, a walkway of trees outside Discovery Hall had to be removed because of a canker disease spreading in that area.
Trees were also recently removed from the Downtown Phoenix campus. Sampson said that wind between those buildings had become more significant, causing the trees' branches to torque, or twist and crack.
If ASU had not removed these trees, he explained, it could have posed a risk for students.
Sampson did say they are planning to replace trees and green spaces around campus, though this will likely take a long time to accomplish, as they must first change irrigation systems, completely remove the tree roots and have few students on campus when doing so.
Goswick, a senior studying computer science and the president of Gardens at ASU, said his club has also been able to garden at fewer locations around campus.
He mentioned four areas that Gardens at ASU used to be involved in — a greenhouse by the Life Sciences Center, a garden near the Social Sciences Building, an herb garden and the Barrett Sustainability Garden. Due to funding issues, Goswick said the Social Sciences garden is now run by ASU Farm, which is a larger and more financially able organization.
Goswick said the club's decreased access to green spaces is not always a bad thing if someone with more funding can keep them running or if the garden is just temporarily shut down for renovations.
"There's been some concern between some of the officers at Garden Club, and some of the older officers, especially, that a lot of the buildings with integrated green spaces are on slate to be destroyed for pretty valid reasons," Goswick said.
For example, Goswick explained that there is a secret garden between Dixie Gammage Hall and West Hall, along with a garden and indoor atrium in the Social Sciences building. These areas are now either condemned or could be within the next few years.
"The major consensus is, if you like plants if you like green spaces or gardening, you're supposed to go to Polytechnic, which houses all our greenhouses. It has the most diverse community garden," Moon said. "The people who go to Gardening Club and use a lot of these spaces are people in STEM, people who are in the arts. We get a lot of business students, too … These people need access to gardening, to grow things, to have a community."
Sustainable green spaces
Marie Fredenberg, a student studying law and sustainability, said Arizona gardeners should be mindful of what they plant, particularly due to water conservation concerns.
"At my undergrad, we placed a heavy emphasis on only using plants that required very little water and very little maintenance, especially plants that didn't require drip irrigation, or at least really extensive watering," Fredenberg said. "Universities do also require you to have some sort of plant palette or a landscaping plan."
Gardens can be planted strategically, for instance, they can be put near a place that is already being irrigated to reduce water usage.
Fredenberg also stressed the difference between turf or lawns and all green spaces. While turf is planted for recreational purposes, other green spaces may not look as nice but are more eco-friendly.
"It's what is commonly called 'xeriscaping,' which is where you do small plots of plants surrounded by rock," she said. "People find that to be somewhat unattractive, especially if you're looking for something that you want to recreate on, like on a lawn. But I think that's a great alternative in downtown Phoenix. If you're not going to have a lawn, at least you can have green spaces."
Sampson said ASU is currently looking into a turf reduction program, trying to find a balance between green spaces that are adapted to a hot, dry climate like Arizona as well as spaces where students can recreate.
ASU demonstrated this a few years ago when they transformed turf outside Durham Hall into a place for more native, low-maintenance plants.
Goswick and Moon said Gardens at ASU has aimed to find this balance. Rooftop gardens like Barrett's carry native plants that need sunlight and little water, while their greenhouse is used for plants that are not adapted to Arizona's climate.
Moon said the greenhouse has allowed them to use irrigation and develop a hydroponic system while wasting as little water as possible.
"ASU just has to build buildings with (eco-friendliness) in mind, and arguably, the only way that happens is students tell faculty and admin that that's something we care about a lot," Goswick said.
Sampson said ASU designs buildings in accordance with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certifications, which measure sustainability in architecture. Currently, the University has eight buildings that are platinum-certified — the highest possible grade.
When Sampson arrived at ASU, he saw that many of the campus mall areas were watered by hand, which wasted both manpower and water. To fix this, he helped Facilities Development and Management bring in a more virtually controlled irrigation system.
"With the advent of technology and the advances in technology, we've been able to do a lot of things with the irrigation systems that make them more efficient, and thereby making us more much more sustainable than we would have been," Sampson said. "We are working to save as much water as we can."
Fredenberg said ASU has been working with what they have.
"I actually think ASU is doing a really good job, all things considered, especially because it's a desert environment," she said. "It's really hard to include green spaces that people are going to recognize."
The importance of green spaces
While not all green spaces are environmentally friendly, Fredenberg said xeriscaping and native plants can be for Arizona.
"In Phoenix, green spaces are often used to combat urban heat island effects," she said.
Goswick said green spaces are good for students' mental health as well as for building a social network.
"If you're growing food at a community garden with other people at ASU, you're building a sense of community," Goswick said.
Gardens at ASU primarily grows food, which Goswick said was a useful skill to have but also allowed them to reach out to other communities in ASU. When they had more resources, Gardens at ASU would donate some of this food to Pitchfork Pantry.
READ MORE: 'You can't innovate on an empty stomach'
"Green spaces are important because it's both an educational tool and it's a recreational tool, and also it brings people together," Moon said.
Green spaces have also been beneficial to Moon on a personal level.
"The reason why I got interested in all this was partially because it gave me sort of an output for a lot of the stress and a lot of the anxiety that comes from college … It's also a really good way for me to give back to a community that's been only positive for me," he said.
Sampson said that while progress with green spaces on campus may seem slow, it is also complicated.
"We know that there are lots of things that need to be done, and we're in the process of working diligently to get them done," he said.
Edited by Abigail Beck, Sophia Ramirez and Natalia Jarrett.
Reach the reporter at pkfung@asu.edu and follow @FungPippa on X.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on X.
Pippa is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication with minors in political science and German. This is her third semester with The State Press. She has also worked at Blaze Radio and the Los Alamos National Lab.
