Tulane Lauded for Commitment to Trees
Tulane University has earned Tree Campus USA recognition for 2010 for its dedication to campus forestry management and environmental stewardship, the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation announced.
A cypress tree on the uptown campus shows its fall colors. The Arbor Day Foundation is honoring Tulane with Tree Campus USA honors. (Photo by Paula Burch-Celentano)
This is the second year Tulane has been named a Tree Campus USA, which 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. Tree Campus USA is a program of the Arbor Day Foundation and is supported by a grant from Toyota.
“By encouraging its students to plant trees and participate in service that will help the environment, Tulane is making a positive impact on its community that will last for decades,” says 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 New Orleans will certainly benefit from Tulane's commitment to Tree Campus USA.”
Tulane met the five core standards of tree care and community engagement 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.
“This recognizes that our campus doing a good thing, looking after our trees,” says Mihnea Dobre from the Office of the University Architect, who coordinates the tree advisory committee that is chaired by Debbie Grant, vice president for university communications and marketing. “We've had a tree care plan for at least 10 years that we revise annually. We documented what we're doing and submitted the application.”
The submission highlighted two tree-planting events that involved students during a service day commemorating the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina at City Park, and planting at a Kaboom playground.
