300 Students Plant Forest on WWII Road at Rutgers

Three hundred volunteers gathered at Rutgers University last Saturday to do something remarkable: turn a 80-year-old abandoned military road into a forest that could last centuries.

The first-ever Tree Planting Festival at Rutgers took place on Livingston campus, where students and community members ripped up crumbling asphalt from Camp Kilmer, a World War II military installation. That old pavement had been blocking rainwater from reaching the soil below for decades, creating runoff problems that harmed the local environment.

Graduate student Josh Kover led the charge after visiting a similar event at Princeton. He didn't just want to plant trees. He wanted to create a movement that would ripple outward far beyond campus borders.

"What is meaningful is when we have hundreds of people come, and we inspire them to do something similar," Kover said. "Now we have this one force turned into five, and that's what's significant, because that's the kind of thing we need to mitigate the effects of climate change."

The festival used the Miyawaki Method, a Japanese technique that packs diverse tree species close together to create fast-growing, resilient mini-forests. The trees compete for resources, and the strongest survive, building a natural forest structure in record time. While research on this method remains limited, early results show promise for climate resilience.

Jason Grabosky, a faculty member with the Rutgers Urban Forestry Program, told the crowd their work was literally rewriting history. "While this was a road since World War II, it is now becoming a forest because of you," he said.

The Ripple Effect

The festival achieved something beyond environmental restoration. It sparked a sense of possibility in everyone who showed up.

Christina Best from the New Jersey chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture praised the organizers for turning tree planting into education and community building. She noted that many volunteers could become future arborists, carrying this knowledge into their careers.

Sonia Balani, a senior at Rutgers Business School, captured the transformative feeling many volunteers experienced. "This forest will be here forever, so it makes you feel larger than life," she said.

The project received support from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and will serve as research for Kover's honors thesis. Live music played throughout the day while environmental clubs connected with students, blending celebration with purpose.

One festival planted hundreds of trees, but it also planted an idea: that young people can transform the scars of the past into hope for the future.