Earth Day is April 22, and DU students are already getting in on the festivities.

A group of DU students volunteered their time to plant trees in the neighborhoods surrounding campus as part of the Denver Digs Trees program last Saturday morning.

Denver Digs Trees is a program created by The Park People, a non-profit environmental organization, that provides low-cost and free trees to Denver residents to be planted along the street.

The program has been at DU for the past five years, although wasn’t put on last year because of drought conditions in the state.

Students gathered outside Sturm that morning to receive breakfast and program t-shirts and to separate into three groups appropriately titled: Maple, Linden, and Hawthorn.

Prior to the tree planting, students distributed flyers throughout the neighborhoods to see which residents were interested in getting a free tree planted in their yard. About 60 trees were planted.

It was a passion for the environment that brought many of the participants out.

“I love trees,” Libby Voss said.

Cindy Robinson, another participant, encourages other students to “come out next year.”

Denver Digs Trees is just one event in DU’s Earth Day Celebration.

An Earth Day festival will be put on Thursday from 11-3 on the Driscoll lawn. Students will be able to learn more about what they can do to help the environment from non-profit organizations and demonstrations. The event is hosted by the DU Environment Team.

A slide show of nature photographer John Fielder’s work entitled “Mountain Ranges of Colorado” is scheduled for Monday at 7 pm in Lindsey Auditorium.

Also scheduled is a lecture by Nathan Glasgow of the Rocky Mountain Institute entitled “Winning the Oil Endgame.”

Glasgow is expected to speak about ending the dependency on non-renewable energy sources in the next 20 years and alternative sources of energy. The talk will be on Thursday at 7 pm in Boettcher Auditorium.

Students looking to take a more active role in the Earth Day festivities might consider joining the nearly 400 people who will be participating in the Boulder Prairie Restoration this Saturday from 8 am to 3 pm.

Volunteers will be removing non-native species from the area and reintroducing native plant species. The effort is a part of DU Volunteer Days and interested students can register for the event at www.du.edu/cap.

A running theme for this year’s Earth Day celebration is energy conservation and renewal.

“It’s important because the population is growing ever more and resources are ever scarce,” Glenn Fee, Community Action Program director, said.

“We are asking student involvement because they are the future consumers of these resources.”