2025-2026 Contest Theme: Trees and Pollinators Make Perfect Partners
Flowering trees are specially adapted to attract and support pollinators. These pollinators in turn help support food webs in the state’s native and urban forests, in addition to sustaining its agricultural crops. Here are facts about trees and pollinators, which strengthen the human and natural ecosystems around us:
- Each tree species has a distinct flower designed to attract pollinators including bees, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, bats, flies, beetles, gnats, and more.
- 75% of the world’s flowering plants and approximately 35% of food crops are dependent on pollinators for successful plant reproduction.
- Trees support pollinators throughout the seasons. Tree species such as Eastern redbud flower in early spring, while tree species such as yellowwood flower in the summer. In addition, trees provide food and habitat to pollinators throughout the year.
- Trees support wild bees in orchards: Forest patches and woodlots adjacent to community orchards are important for sustaining wild bee populations and encouraging bee diversity, thus increasing overall resilience and productivity of orchards.
- Species Highlight: Pawpaws have maroon flowers with a faint scent that attracts flies and beetles. They are also the only host plant for the larvae of the zebra swallowtail butterfly.
2024-2025 Winners
The Indiana DNR Division of Forestry team is proud to announce the top three winners of our 2024-2025 poster contest. This year's submissions were especially creative with focuses on a variety of health and wellbeing aspects.
Thanks to the schools that participated and to the teachers who chose to highlight the importance of trees to human and environmental health in their classroom.
Stay tuned for an announcement of the theme for the 2025-2026 Arbor Day poster contest this fall.
Select image below to see a larger version.
First Place
Jaxon Cadden
St. John the Baptist Catholic School
Newburgh
Second Place
Chase Steele
John H. Castle Elementary School
Newburgh
Third Place
Anne Rose Worthington
Zionsville Middle School
Zionsville
About the Contest
Join 5th grade students and teachers across the state in submitting original artwork for the annual Arbor Day poster contest by the Indiana DNR Division of Forestry’s Community and Urban Forestry program (CUF) and Indiana Project Learning Tree. Discover the important role of trees in Indiana’s urban and forest communities with annual themes designed to grow students’ understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the trees around them. If you have any questions, please contact our office at urbanforestry@dnr.IN.gov.
How to Enter
- Students create their own posters
Explore this year’s theme with 5th grade students in the classroom and ask them to create a poster reflecting the theme and their own understanding of the importance of trees and forests. - Select a schoolwide winner
Gather your student’s posters and select a winner through a judging panel of school staff, students, parents, and/or tree professionals. You may consider contacting to your community’s tree board, city arborist, environmental nonprofit organizations, or local nurseries for tree professionals to see if they are interested in helping. Students who attend nonparticipating schools or are home-schooled may submit posters individually. - Submit your school’s winner to the Indiana DNR Division of Forestry
Scan your winning poster and include the Contest Entry Form with the poster. Submit to urbanforestry@dnr.IN.gov with the subject line “Arbor Day Poster Contest Entry.” The deadline for entry is April 1, and winners will be announced on the week of Arbor Day.
Contest Rules
- Eligibility: All Indiana 5th grade students are eligible to enter their school’s poster contest. Each school may submit only one poster to the statewide contest. All schools are eligible to enter the statewide contest, including homeschools.
- Originality: Poster must be original artwork, no collages, no use of cartoon characters or television figures (many of these figures are copyrighted and cannot be reprinted).
- Medium: Posters may be drawn using markers, crayons, paint pens, watercolor, ink, acrylic, colored pencils, and/or tempera paints. Keep in mind that the poster must be digitized to be submitted.
- Theme: The contest theme must be on the poster, and the poster should be related to the theme in some meaningful way. Words on the entry should be legible and spelled correctly. Any included tree facts should be true, accurate, and verifiable.
- Entry Form: Please fill out and submit one contest entry form for school-winning entries in the statewide competition. Please have students print their names in the lower-right corner of the front of their poster.
- Sharing Permissions: Posters submitted become the property of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and may be used, without compensation, to promote future contests and other urban forest outreach programs.
Contest Awards
First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive a scholarship from Indiana 529 in addition to being featured on social media. The first-place winner will also receive a free tree planting at their school.
2025-2026 Educational Resources
When we support a healthy canopy of trees in our community and beyond, we support pollinators that in turn support our agricultural systems and food webs. Below are some lesson plans and activity resources to help you get started, including a list of Indiana Academic Standards you can meet by fully participating in this contest.
- Alignment to Indiana 5th Grade Academic Standards
- 5-LS2-1 Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
- 5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
- Project Learning Tree:
- Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for educators of youth of all ages. Engage your students in learning about the environment through the lens of trees and forests. Explore the Project Learning Tree website for curriculum resources and free activities you can incorporate into your classroom.
- Questions about PLT in Indiana? Interested in PLT professional development? Contact Indiana PLT coordinator Lexi Eiler at leiler@dnr.IN.gov.
- Arbor Day Foundation
- The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to tree-planting, urban forestry, and education to solve issues of climate, community, and biodiversity.
- See the Arbor Day Foundation’s Learning Hub for its Tree Campus K-12 program for a curation of free and paid curriculum resources and classroom activities.
- To learn more about specific tree species that benefit pollinators: Trees for Bees and Other Pollinators
- Get some inspiration for classroom tree topics from the Arbor Day Foundation and access the learning materials in Carly’s Kids Corner!
- Pollinator Partnership: Learn more about the Pollinator Partnership.