Mollie K Hughes has long been involved in environmental issues. Since moving to Hanover, NH, she has played a leading role in identifying the trees on the Dartmouth College campus—a campus she rightly refers to as "an arboretum of northern trees."

For three decades she lived in Dayton, Ohio where she immerses herself in a number of regional environmental issues and public, private and parochial school programs focused on the preservation of natural resources and the planting of trees.

Sponsored by the Kettering Foundation, Mrs. Hughes was sent to Europe to observe and study natural techniques to improve climate, environment and the quality of life in selected cities in Germany and Holland. She and her husband have volunteered on Earth Watch research projects in china, Poland, Venezuela and Costa Rica.

In 1984, they moved to Hanover where she continued to pursue her interests in outdoor activities and especially to focus on Dartmouth campus trees. She has led Study Groups for the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD), worked as a ski instructor at Killington and the Dartmouth Skiway, and spent seven years as a volunteer teaching handicapped skiers.

Mrs. Hughes was the recipient of the first Governor's Arbor Day Award for the State of Ohio, and honor which singled her out for her many successes in enhancing the quality of life in that state.

Dartmouth's wealth of trees provides a sequence of color, texture and shape throughout the seasons. They delineate and preserve precious open space. Unusual species from many parts of the world contribute scientific interest to the academic setting. The presence of trees native to northern New England helps blend the beauty of the College with the character of its surrounding environment.

This book, celebrating those trees, details species included in the Campus Tree Inventory for Dartmouth College which was completed in 1999 by Saucier & Flynn, Ltd., Landscape Architects, and the College's Department of Facilities Operation and Management. Even here, far north in the Upper Valley of the Connecticut River, the inventory identifies more than 75 species of trees. Parts of the campus were not inventoried. In those areas, including the Hanover Country Club and around Occom Pond, College Park (which includes Barnett Tower, Shattuck Observatory and the Bema), and the old cemetery on the west side of campus (the property of the Town of Hanover), additional species such as Aspen, Cottonwood, Gary Birch and American Sycamore can be found. These species are not included in Forever Green.

No inventory of trees can be kept constantly up to date. New trees are planted each spring and fall, and established trees succumb and must be remove. Every attempt has been made to include all inventoried species of trees represented on the Dartmouth College campus at the turn of a new century.