HomepageNewsArbor Day Honor Rooted in Tree Care

Arbor Day Honor Rooted in Tree Care

The campus celebrated Arbor Day with an honor from Tree Campus USA: a new plaque honoring the care of trees on campus.

The national program Tree Campus USA recognized Ursinus for its care and protection of trees on campus. Campus Sustainability Planner Shannon Spencer gathered students by a Burr Oak tree near The Kaleidoscope to thank them for their protection of campus trees. 

In the fall of 2014 the Campus Tree Care Committee, a subcommittee of the UC Sustainability Committee, applied for Tree Campus USA status for Ursinus College. The status was awarded earlier this month by the Arbor Day Foundation.  

Tree Campus USA is a national program created in 2008 by the ADF, and sponsored by Toyota, to honor colleges and universities for promoting healthy trees and for engaging staff and students in conservation on campus. Ursinus College was awarded the title for meeting Tree Campus USA’s five standards: maintaining a tree advisory committee, having a campus tree-care plan and dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, and holding an Arbor Day observance and a student service-learning project.

Ursinus has a wide variety of trees – hundreds of species – on our campus.  Environmental Studies faculty and students have undertaken tree protection and education initiatives, including tree plantings and a campus-wide tree inventory. They have also partnered with the Borough of Collegeville on tree and rain garden plantings in neighboring Hunsberger Woods.

Professor of Environmental Science Richard Wallace spoke of the ability of trees to span generations. A tree will be planted in the fall in honor of Arbor Day, because it was late in the season for planting trees.  

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