ECU receives Tree Campus USA designation
Students participating in the Tree Campus USA designation ceremony. (Photos by Chad Carwein)
East Carolina University has officially earned the Tree Campus USA designation by the National Arbor Day Foundation for the first time in university history. Only 12 total North Carolina institutions of higher education can claim this certification, which was celebrated during a recent tree-planting ceremony on campus.
East Carolina University’s Grounds Team planting a tree on campus for Arbor Day.
To qualify, ECU staff worked over the past year to meet Tree Campus USA standards. Standards include a Campus Tree Advisory Committee including students, faculty, facility management and at least one community member. A tree care plan was developed containing the policies for planting, landscaping, maintenance and removal of the trees on campus. (To see ECU’s Tree Care Plan click here.)
For the third and fourth standards ECU needed to have dedicated annual expenditures and extend community education efforts through an Arbor Day event.
Lastly, the university needed to complete a variety of Service Learning Projects. ECU met this standard through the following tree planting events on campus: Earth Day (April 20, 2016) and ReLeaf Community Tree Day (March 18, 2017).
For more information about Tree Campus USA, please visit www.arborday.org or contact John Gill, Director of ECU Grounds Department at (252) 737-1179 or gillj@ecu.edu.
–by Chad Carwein, ECU Sustainability