Rhode Island's Artemis Moon Trees
June 2026 :
We’re sure everyone was glued to their screens watching the Artemis II crew’s 10-day trek to the Moon, the first in many peoples’ lifetimes. For those of us who were around during the Apollo program, probably the first thought was on the line of “It’s about time.”
Many of you might be unaware that one experiment on the Apollo mission resulted in the distribution of Moon Trees, seeds that were sent up on Apollo 14 in 1971. After first being proposed by a member of the U.S. Forest Service, Stuart Roosa, command module pilot, brought a canister of 500 seeds of varied species. Upon return, the seeds were sent to Forest Service stations in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Placerville, California, to germinate. Nearly all were successful, and many of them were planted alongside their Earth counterparts. After several decades, there appeared no discernible difference between the two sets of trees.
In 2022, NASA announced it would repeat the experiment, this time sending 1,000 seeds aboard Artemis I. On returning to Earth, we’re happy to report that two of these trees, both American Sweetgum, are now in Rhode Island: On the grounds of the Tiverton Public Library, and Barrington’s Middle School. Sadly, the only way to find them is to notice one tree on the property that has a fencing around it, although the one in Barrington does have a “sticker” saying “moon tree” on one of the fence posts. Otherwise, there is no notation that they have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to reach their destinations. Many other trees, especially those from the Apollo seedlings, have plaques alongside, explaining their extraordinary travels. There is no writing whether plaques for the Artemis trees have been made, but perhaps in the future there will be a way to remind us all of their journey, as they deserve to be made known.
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