Recycling has been a way of life at Bethel for a long time. This summer brought a new dimension to the effort as construction began on the new University Commons: recycling trees.

As they began clearing ground for Bethel’s University Commons, Mortenson Construction found that 22 Oak trees were the perfect fit for the Minnesota Zoo Russia’s Grizzly Coast Project. “I’d been looking for this type of tree for a year,” says Mortenson Construction Executive Dick Dotterweich, who is working on the new Minnesota Zoo exhibit, which will feature grizzly bears, sea otters, wild boar, and Amur leopards. Trees from Bethel will be used in the grizzly, leopard, and wild boar portions of the exhibit. Although the exact date hasn’t been determined yet, the exhibit is slated to open at some point in 2008.

“We were very excited to find that there was a place in need of these trees,” says Bruce Kunkel, vice president for campus services. “It is great stewardship of these natural resources to be able to reuse them at the Minnesota Zoo.”