On Tuesday, March 18, Ryan Sailstad, recreation and operations supervisor for Durham Parks and Recreation, received an unexpected text message: a UPS shipment had arrived. Following standard protocol, he drove to the main Parks and Recreation office, where he was met by a delivery driver holding a large box roughly 6” wide and about 60” tall.
“Do you know what you’re holding”? Sailstad asked.
The driver shook his head, and Sailstad opened the box right then and there in the parking lot.
“You had a tree on your truck that went around the moon,” Sailstad said. “From this seed that went all the way around the moon, you had a part in bringing it to its final place.”
The shocked delivery driver pulled out his phone to take photos, eager to share the moment with his wife.
The day before, on Monday, March 17, Sailstad was also stunned when he received an email from NASA announcing that the Moon Tree was on its way. “I kind of…forgot about it,” he said.
The Moon Tree is part of the Artemis Program, a nationwide initiative launched by NASA and the U.S. Forest Service. In collaboration, the two agencies launched 1,200 seeds of loblolly pine, Douglas fir, giant sequoia, American sycamore, and sweetgum trees into lunar orbit aboard the Orion spacecraft. The seeds traveled 1.4 million miles, leaving Earth on November 16, 2022, and returning on December 11.
The mission is an ode to a moment from over 50 years ago, when astronaut Stuart Roosa carried tree seeds around the moon aboard Apollo 14. One of those original Moon Trees stands in Pisgah, North Carolina.
That tree, which Sailstad visited years earlier, inspired him to apply for a Moon Tree on behalf of Durham Parks and Recreation in 2023, after learning about NASA’s tree program. “It was one of those things. I was like, we might as well,” he said.
The application process was fairly standard, with an emphasis on community impact and the ability to care for the tree, he said.
Sailstad specified that the tree would reside near the Environmental Education Pavilion at West Point on the Eno, where it could serve as a resource for scientific and environmental education and community engagement.
“It kind of made sense that we would have a moon tree there so that we could program around it,” Sailstad said. “There would be staff ready to interpret… so it wouldn’t just sit in a park and just sort of be there. It would be something — a feature of these programs.”
Once he learned that the tree was a loblolly pine, Sailstad and his colleague Tom Dawson explored the area to find the most suitable spot for this species, which can grow up to 115 feet tall. They chose a location at the highest point along the trail—an ecologically ideal setting that’s protected by other trees yet sunlit and easily accessible to visitors.
Together, Sailstad and Dawson dug a hole, planted the sapling, gave it some water, and made sure it was leveled.
“And that’s kind of the cool thing about a Moon Tree,” Sailstad said. “It was more than just planting a tree. It was special. But it was also just planting a tree.”
Today, the sapling is secured by a temporary wooden fence, shielding it from outside threats such as humans or animals. Eventually, once the tree settles, that fence will come down. Children will gather around it on field trips, and adults will enjoy it from the nearby park benches that Durham Parks and Recreation plans to install.
For Sailstad, that’s the exact purpose. While school science lessons can be dry and dull, a real, live tree whose seeds flew around the moon is exciting and thought-provoking.
“One of the things that a moon tree can do is to make people ask questions, and to teach people how to properly ask those questions,” he said. “Giving people a reason to ask questions is a powerful tool.”
The Moon Tree will be dedicated at a ceremony tonight from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the planting site. The event will feature speeches from partners at the Morehead Planetarium and the Museum of Life and Science, as well as a reading of the tree’s plaque. The evening concludes with a screening of two episodes from Carl Sagan’s 1980-81 television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.”
Sailstad hopes the Moon Tree will bring Durham residents closer to space, describing it as “something that’s really positive for Durham.”
“It’s just a little seed that went on an incredible journey,” Sailstad said. “And now it’s growing in our backyard.”
“Even if you’re not launching into space… it does make you feel like you’re part of something bigger.”
Above: The Moon Tree is surrounded by a fence for the time being, while it establishes roots. Photo courtesy of Durham Parks & Recreation.
