REGIS’ TREE WHISPERER HELPS DIVERSE SPECIES TAKE ROOT
Tucked away on the eastern side of the Northwest Denver Campus and fenced off from the rest of the world, more than 100 young trees are protected and cared for in a nursery until they are big and strong enough to become part of Regis’ celebrated arboretum. Much of that care is provided by the woman who paid for many of them out of her own pocket, who has given countless hours to planting, growing and tending Regis trees, and for whom that secluded nursery is now named: Sonia John. Since 2015, John, a retired artist and local tree lover, has lent her self-described “tree energies” to the Regis University arboretum. But her interest in trees took root long before she set foot on campus and saw hundreds of species thriving despite Denver’s dry, tree-hostile climate.
BY Meredith Sell
20
“When I was a kid, I’d climb trees, but doesn’t everybody climb trees?” John said. She remembers growing up around maple trees and their winged seeds, which spun like helicopter blades on their way to the ground. And she remembers collecting foliage in high school for a biology class assignment. Using a key that asked about distinguishing features — Was the leaf veined? Symmetrical? Were its edges smooth or jagged? — she learned to identify a tree based on its leaves.
Spring /Summer 2021 | R EG I S U N I V E R S I T Y M AG A ZI N E
