Two-Story Tree Hug

The crowd at the Morton Arboretum first entered the MAZE Garden, a one-acre living puzzle of hedges. Within the garden is the large sycamore tree they came to hug.

Come all ye tree huggers.

The good folks at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Ill. are always up to something.

On October 17, 2009 341 adults and children turned out to shout ''We love trees,'' and be part of the ''A-MAZE-ING Two-Story Tree Hug.''

The hug was part of a nationwide initiative to send a message about trees and their incredible value and benefits.

''Too often, trees are taken for granted. This hug gave us all an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the remarkable contributions that trees make to all aspects of our lives, including our very well-being, and to encourage everyone to plant and protect trees,'' explained Edith Makra, the Morton's arborist and community trees advocate.

Arboretum staffers documented the event and will apply to have it established as a Guinness record for tree hugging.

A 14-ft. high upper-story viewing platform and the ground level platform comprised the ''Two-Story Tree Hug.''

Even though sunny skies turned cloudy and a few raindrops fell, the sprit of the crowd was not dampened. The crowd entered the MAZE Garden, a one-acre living puzzle of hedges containing a large sycamore tree. The first 100 huggers that lined up received a tree hugger T-shirt, and everyone received a green and white ''I'm a Tree Hugger'' button.

Tree lovers gathered on two stories to hug the sycamore. The upper story is a 14-foot-high viewing platform around the tree; the lower story is a ground-level platform. As 3:00 p.m. approached, the crowd counted down the final seconds as loudly as they could, and at zero shouted, ''We love trees,'' and gave the sycamore a big hug.

As the people departed the MAZE, each received a packet of so-called ''Moon sycamore'' seeds featuring the Tree Hugger logo and a thank you message for participating. The seeds were gathered from a tree grown from a seed that went around the moon on the Apollo-14 mission.

National Tree Hugger Day is organized by American Forests and IKEA. It celebrates the one-millionth tree planted through IKEA's Global ReLeaf tree planting projects across the U.S.

The Morton Arboretum www.mortonarb.org has a collection of 4,117 kinds of trees, shrubs and other plants from around the world.