The Arbor Day Foundation has recognized the University of Mary Washington as a 2015 Tree Campus USA® for its work in practicing and promoting conservation on its campus.
According to the Arbor Day Foundation, UMW fulfilled five core standards to achieve this distinction, including 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. The foundation praised UMW for its “commitment to effective urban forest management.”
“Trees are vital to the health of the environment,” said Bethany Friesner, a member of UMW’s President Council of Sustainability. “The designation speaks not only to the university’s commitment to the environment, but also to the development of our campus as an arboretum.”
Currently 254 college campuses across the United States have earned this recognition, according to the Arbor Day Foundation.
Among UMW’s initiatives, the President Council of Sustainability held an event the previous year observing Arbor Day at Brompton, home of UMW’s president. During the event, playfully titled a new “tree-dition,” UMW faculty, staff and students participated in a tree planting service project with Tree Fredericksburg, a nonprofit organization dedicated restoring and maintaining a vibrant urban forest in the City of Fredericksburg. Attendees also learned about the history of the more than 200-year-old Brompton Oak. The oak was included in photographs of the Civil War, sheltering soldiers underneath its wide branches.
The Arbor Day Foundation has aided college campuses throughout the United States plant thousands of trees, according to a news release, and Tree Campus USA colleges and universities have invested more than $36.8 million in campus forest management last year.
The President’s Council on Sustainability, beginning in 2009, is a dynamic team of faculty, administration and students who help shape administrative goals regarding sustainability measures on campus. The annual RecycleMania competition and the student group UMW Ecology Club also help promote campus-wide sustainability.
More information about The Arbor Day Foundation and Tree Campus USA program can be found at arborday.org/TreeCampusUSA. For more information about The President’s Council on Sustainability, visit http://sustainability.umw.edu/programs/pcs/.