Berea College has earned Tree Campus USA recognition for 2010 for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship. This is the second year Berea College has been named a Tree Campus USA.
Tree Campus USA is a national program that honors colleges and universities and their leaders for promoting healthy management of their campus forests and for engaging the community in environmental stewardship.
“By encouraging its students to plant trees and participate in service that will help the environment, Berea College is making a positive impact on its community that will last for decades,” said John Rosenow, chief executive and founder of the Arbor Day Foundation. “One goal of the Tree Campus USA program is to help create healthier communities for its citizens through the planting of trees, and the city of Berea will certainly benefit from Berea College’s commitment to Tree Campus USA.”
Berea College met the five core standards of tree care and community engagement in order to receive Tree Campus USA status. The standards are: establish a campus tree advisory committee; evidence of a campus tree-care plan; verification of dedicated annual expenditures on the campus tree-care plan; involvement in an Arbor Day observance; and the institution of a service-learning project aimed at engaging the student body. Arbor Day Foundation launched Tree Campus USA in the fall of 2008 by planting trees at nine college campuses throughout the United States. Twenty nine schools were named a Tree Campus USA in 2008, and in three years the number of schools has more than tripled.
“Consistent campus tree care is extremely important for safety and aesthetics,” says Matt Partain, grounds coordinator at Berea College. “Not counting seedlings (we planted around 100 of them in outer areas), last year we removed 27 trees from campus, but we countered that by planting 74 trees.”
Berea College will host a campus arbor day on Wednesday, March 30, 2011, from 1:30-4:30pm. The event will be held between the college baseball and softball fields.
Tree Campus USA is a program of the Arbor Day Foundation and is supported by a grant from Toyota.