By Matt Kucinski, Calvin College
Calvin College is honored with 2018 Tree Campus USA® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management. Calvin is one of five Michigan institutions to receive the distinction. (Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Washtenaw Community College, and Western Michigan University were also included.)
“Tree Campuses and their students set examples for not only their student bodies but the surrounding communities showcasing how trees create a healthier environment,” said Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation. “Because of your school’s participation air will be purer, water cleaner and your students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty the trees provide.”
Tree Campus USA, an Arbor Day Foundation program created in 2008, honors colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. Calvin College achieved the title for the seventh straight year by meeting Tree Campus USA’s five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures for its campus tree program, an Arbor Day observance, and student service-learning project. Currently there are 364 campuses across the United States with this recognition.
“Calvin’s Tree Campus USA designation shows the importance we place on not only the care and management of our existing trees, but also on campus involvement in planting new ones,” said Bob Speelman, Calvin’s landscape operations supervisor and a certified arborist. “Campus trees play a key role in making this an attractive, sustainable, and enjoyable place to live, work, and visit. I am pleased that our role as stewards of the campus urban forest has been recognized once again.”
The Arbor Day Foundation is a million-member nonprofit conservation and education organization with the mission to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. The organization has helped campuses throughout the country plant thousands of trees, and Tree Campus USA colleges and universities invested more than $51 million in campus forest management last year.
Reprinted with permission from Calvin College.
