Tree Planting to Celebrate Arbor Day, Tree Campus USA Designation
April 21, 2017
April 14, 2017 — UNC will celebrate Arbor Day and its designation by the Arbor Day Foundation as a Tree Campus USA for the fifth consecutive year with a tree planting and ceremony at 9 a.m. Friday, April 21, at the permaculture garden on the south side of Ross Hall.
Three flowering crabapple trees will be planted and a forester from the Colorado State Forest Service will present the Tree Campus USA award.
Tree Campus USA is a national program created in 2008 to honor colleges and universities for effective campus forest management and for engaging students and employees in conservation goals.
UNC retained the title by continuing to meet the program's five standards, which include maintaining a tree advisory committee, a campus tree-care plan, dedicated annual expenditures toward trees, an Arbor Day observance and student service-learning projects.
The university is also a certified arboretum recognized by the National ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program. The accreditation program is sponsored by Morton Arboretum in cooperation with the American Public Gardens Association and Botanic Gardens Conservation International. In addition to the campus's 3,700 trees, the arboretum includes over 17,000 flowers, hundreds of perennial plantings, a xeric garden with neighboring community garden plots, and a Colorado grassland exhibit.
UNC is also home to the Colorado Tree Coalition state champion trees based on their size:
A Kentucky coffee tree (northwest of Frasier Hall)
Two Amur cork trees (north of Gray Hall and south of Gray Hall in the parking lot
island)
A pecan tree (northeast of the intersection of 9th Avenue and 19th Street).
To take self-guided tree tours visit www.unco.edu/treetour.
The Arbor Day Foundation and Tree Campus USA sponsor Toyota have helped campuses throughout the country plant hundreds of thousands of trees. More information about the program is available at arborday.org/TreeCampusUSA.
