IUPUC was honored with 2020 Tree Campus Higher Education® recognition by the Arbor Day Foundation for its commitment to effective urban forest management.
“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 IUPUC’s participation, air will be purer, water cleaner and students and faculty will be surrounded by the shade and beauty trees provide.”
The Tree Campus Higher Education program honors colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging staff and students in conservation goals. IUPUC achieved the title by meeting Tree Campus Higher Education’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 403 campuses across the United States with this recognition.
The Arbor Day Foundation has helped campuses throughout the country plant thousands of trees, and Tree Campus Higher Education colleges and universities invested more than $51 million in campus forest management last year. This work directly supports the Arbor Day Foundation’s Time for Trees initiative — an unprecedented effort to plant 100 million trees in forests and communities and inspire 5 million tree planters by 2022. Last year, Tree Campus Higher Education schools have collectively planted 39,178 trees and engaged 81,535 tree planters — helping us work toward these critical goals.
IUPUC has planned a tree planting event on April 28, 2021 to celebrate Arbor Day. Students, faculty, and staff will plant six emerald poplar and five red oak trees. “As we move forward, our goal is to achieve a 40% tree canopy for the entire IUPUC campus; currently, we are at about 10-15% coverage,” said Naomi Cohenour, Executive Director, Office of Administration and Finance, who also manages the sustainability program at IUPUC.
Students, faculty and staf interested in helping with the tree planting can get more information at https://events.iu.edu/iupucwww/event/183767.
IUPUC has also created an online presence that displays the work it has been doing since 2019 in conjunction with the Tree Campus Higher Education program. For more information, visit go.iupuc.edu/treecampus.
About the Arbor Day Foundation
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. More information is available at arborday.org. For additional information about the Tree Campus Higher Education program, visit treecampushighered.org.